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Strutli.r.  ii  Cu.,  Engr'B  anS  Pr*»,  N.Y. 


BRIGHT  SKIES  AJfD  DARK  SHADOWS 

LORD 
WOLSElEr 

By  henry  M.  field  D.D. 


WSSitf^  maps 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1890 


COPYBIGHT,  1890,  BY 

CHAKLES  SCRIBNEE'S  SONS. 


WHOSE  INVITATION,  COMING  AT  A  MOMENT  OF  ILIiNESS, 

TOOK  ME  AWAY  TO  A  PARADISE  OF  EEST, 

AND  GAVE  ME  STRENGTH  TO  BEGIN  THIS  BOOK, 

I  NOW  RETURN  IT  COMPLETE 

IN  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  HIS  GREAT  KINDNESS, 

AND  IN  TOKEN  OF  A  FRIENDSHIP 

THAT  IS  VERY  DEAR  TO  ME. 


29()~~.r' 


PREFACE. 

Migration  to  the  South  at  the  approach  of  Winter,  has 
become  almost  as  regular  as  the  migration  of  birds.  A 
journey  that  is  so  familiar  needs  little  in  the  way  of  de- 
scription ;  and  if  I  linger  here  and  there,  or  turn  to  some 
out-of-the-way  place  like  Jupiter  Inlet,  it  is  not  to  magnify 
slight  accessories,  but  to  prepare  a  larger  canvas  for  a 
principal  figure,  as  these  tropical  surroundings  furnish  a 
background,  the  more  effective  by  contrast,  for  the  dark 
subject  of  my  story.  It  is  under  these  "  bright  skies  "  that 
the  "  shadows  "  creep  on  the  scene.  Out  of  the  palms  and 
the  orange  groves  starts  up  a  spectre,  the  ghost  of  some- 
thing gone,  that,  though  dead  and  buried,  sleeps  in  an 
unquiet  grave,  and  comes  forth  at  midnight  to  haunt  us 
in  our  dreams.  The  Race  Problem  is  the  gravest  that 
ever  touched  a  nation's  life.  The  subject  at  once  fasci- 
nates and  repels  by  its  tremendous  import,  its  difficulty 
and  its  danger.  I  have  been  so  oppressed  by  it  that  I 
could  not  keep  from  speaking,  even  if  it  were  only  to 
ask  questions.  That  is  the  way  to  get  light,  by  groping 
after  it.  Confession  of  ignorance  is  the  first  step  towards 
knowledge.  To  one  in  perplexity  of  mind  on  a  difficult 
question,  it  is  a  help  to  talk  it  over  in  a  friendly  way : 
to  exchange  suggestions  with  those  who  give  as  well  as 
receive.  Ideas  which  were  extremely  vague,  crystallize  in 
expression,  and  are  useful  if  only  to  draw  forth  some- 
thing better  from  others.  With  this  frank  statement,  I 
give  my  thoughts  for  what  they  are  worth,  but  do  not 


ii  PREFACE. 

assume  for  one  moment  to  set  myself  up  as  an  authority. 
I  boast  no  superior  wisdom  :  I  only  claim  to  have  a  few 
grains  of  common-sense,  an  earnest  desire  for  the  good 
of  both  races,  and  a  boundless  charity. 

After  this  grave  discussion  of  a  question  that  has  been 
the  brooding  mother  of  all  our  woes,  last  and  greatest  of 
which  was  the  late  civil  war,  it  is  not  a  violent  transition 
to  a  stirring  event  in  the  war  itself,  the  Battle  of  Franklin. 
As  I  went  over  the  field  with  those  who  had  a  part  in  the 
scenes  of  that  terrible  day,  I  have  tried  to  tell  the  story 
in  a  way  to  be  just  alike  to  friend  and  foe.  Then,  by  way 
of  contrast  and  relief,  we  turn  to  a  quiet  old  mansion  on 
the  banks  of  the  Cumberland,  where  one  of  our  earlier 
heroes,  Andrew  Jackson,  lived  and  died. 

Keturning  home  across  the  mountains,  it  came  in  my 
way  to  visit  the  graves  of  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson,  in 
writing  of  whom  I  have  not  sought  to  revive  recollections 
that  could  stir  up  bitterness,  but  to  contribute  at  once  to 
the  truth  of  history  and  to  the  cause  of  peace.  These  very 
sketches  serve  to  show  us  "  how  near  and  yet  how  far  "  is 
the  great  drama  in  which  these  distinguished  actors  bore 
a  part — so  near  as  to  be  remembered  vividly  by  the  living 
generation,  and  yet  so  far  as  to  have  removed  all  irrita- 
tion, so  that  we  can  write  of  these  recent  events  with  the 
calm,  judicial  temper  of  posterity.  Can  we  make  a  better 
use  of  history  than  to  learn  from  it  this  double  lesson  :  to 
honor  all  the  heroic  dead,  and  to  think  kindly  and  gener- 
ously of  the  hving  ? 
March,  1890. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    Sent  Away.    The  ConsoijAtions  op  Exile S 

II.   Over  the  Mountains:  AsHEviLiiE  and  Knoxvtllb. 

A  Keminiscence  of  the  War 16 

III.  From  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta.    Along  the  Track 

OF  Sherman's  March 27 

IV.  Florida.    St.  Augustine  and  the  Ponce  de  Leon.  . .  36 

V.    South  Florida.    Where  the  Palms  Whisper  to  the 

Pines.    Jupiter  Inlet.    Kobinson  Crusoe  Life  ...  53 

VI.    New  England  in  the  South.     The  Old  Home  and 

THE  New  Home 76 

VII.  Northern  Florida 89 

VIII.  "  Marching  through  Georgia" 97 

IX.  The  Black  Belt  and  the  Bace  Problem 107 

X.  A  New  Departure.    The  Negro  Vote 118 

XI.  Capacity  of  the  Negro.    His  Position  in  the  North. 

The  Color  Line  in  New  England 131 

XII.    The  Expatriation  of  a  Whole  Race 154 

XIII.    Looking  Forward 165 

xrv.    Old  Masters  Caring  for  their  Old  Slaves 179 

XV.  A  Camp-meeting  in  the  Woods,  with  a  Few  Words 

to  my  Colored  Brethren 190 

XVI.  A  Story  of  the  War:  The  Battle  of  Franklin. . . .209 

XVII.  The  Hermitage:  The  Home  and  Burial-place  of 

Andrew  Jackson 257 

XVIII.  Stonewall  Jackson  and  the  Valley  Campaign 273 

XIX.   The  Last  Days  of  General  Lee 295 


BRIGHT  SKIES  AND  .DARK  SHADOWS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SENT  AWAY— THE  CONSOLATIONS  OF  EXILE* 

"  Go  !  go !  go ! "  said  the  doctor.  "  The  sooner,  the 
better!"  This  was  sending  me  into  exile  at  a  moment's 
notice.  I  did  not  Hke  it.  There  is  no  place  like  home, 
and  though  it  may  not  be  quite  orthodox,  I  have  always 
been  of  the  opinion  that  the  angel  of  the  household  was 
as  good  as  an  angel  with  wings.  But  the  doctor  was  per- 
emptory. He  did  not  give  advice,  but  command,  and  in 
such  a  case  there  is  nothing  to  do  but  to  obey.  It  would 
have  lightened  the  matter  a  Httle  if  I  could  have  had  so 
much  as  a  pleasant  day  to  depart ;  but  it  was  raining 
heavily  as  I  crossed  the  Hudson,  and  one's  spirits  are  apt 
to  sink  with  the  barometer.  In  such  a  mood,  a  ferry-boat 
is  not  the  place  of  retirement  that  one  would  choose  to 
indulge  his  sombre  reflections ;  and  the  station  at  Jersey 
City,  dark  as  a  half-lighted  tunnel,  seemed  almost  like  a 
cavern  leading  to  the  shades  below.  But  even  in  the 
shades  one  may  recognize  some  famihar  faces,  and  as  I 
stepped  into  the  drawing-room  car,  whom  should  I  see  in 
the  opposite  seat  but  an  old  friend  who  had  just  been 
elected  Vice-President  of  the  United  States !  It  is  more 
than  thirty  years  since  I  first  knew  Levi  P.  Morton  :  we 
recalled  the  very  time  and  place  at  which  our  acquaint- 


10  KESTFUL  PHILADELPHIA. 

ance  began.  He  was  then  living  in  Fourteenth  street,  in 
a  house  twelve  and  a  half  feet  wide  ;  but  small  as  it  was, 
it  was  full  of  brightness,  and  he  was  then  the  same  gentle- 
spoken,  quiet-mannered,  and  even-tempered  man  that  he 
has  been  ever  since,  with  a  natural  courtesy  that  makes 
all  men  his  friends,  and  none  his  enemies.  It  is  with  a 
personal  gratification  that  I  see  this  true  American  gentle- 
man elevated  to  the  second  position  in  the  government  of 
his  country,  and  that  he  has  at  his  side  one  who  will  do  as 
much  to  grace  the  social  life  of  Washington  as  any  of  her 
predecessors. 

Pleasant  company  makes  time  pass  quickly,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  the  train  rolled  into  the  station  at  Phila- 
delphia. The  rain  was  stiU  pouring,  but  there  were  bright 
lights  and  welcoming  faces,  and  we  were  soon  carried  off, 
willing  captives,  to  taste  the  hospitality  of  the  Quaker  City. 

When  I  am  banished  from  feverish  New  York,  I  betake 
me  to  restful  Philadelphia,  the  very  sight  of  which,  with 
its  rectangular  streets  and  slow-moving  people,  subdues 
me  to  a  feeling  of  quietness  and  peace.  If  I  were  a  doc- 
tor, and  had  a  patient  who  was  suffering  from  insomnia,  I 
would  prescribe  for  him  a  change  to  Philadelphia.  It  is  a 
perfect  anodyne.  At  once  the  heart  beats  more  slowly, 
the  pulse  becomes  more  measured  and  regular,  and  the 
tired  brain  finds  the  welcome  rest  that  brings  life  back 
again,  and  the  weary  pilgrim  starts  on  his  journey  anew, 
with  fresh  courage  and  hope. 

A  Sunday  in  Philadelphia  is  next  to  walking  the  golden 
streets.  The  great  city  rests  from  its  six  days  of  labor. 
Men  gather  their  families  about  them,  and  walk  to  the 
house  of  God  in  company.  Angels  are  abroad,  and  we 
can  almost  hear  the  soft  stirring  of  their  wings. 

In  this  city  of  churches  I  feel  very  much  at  home.  If 
one  is  looking  about  for  a  sight  that  is  at  once  unique  and 


A  FAMOUS  SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  11 

inspiring,  he  may  find  it  in  the  famous  Bethany  Sunday- 
school,  the  largest  in  America,  founded  by  Mr.  John 
Wanamaker,  whose  partner,  Mr.  Robert  C.  Ogden,  not  to 
be  outdone  in  good  works,  has  set  up  another,  not  in 
opposition,  but  in  imitation.  Mr.  Wanamaker,  at  the 
head  of  his  Bible-class,  which  includes  many  hundreds  of 
mature  age,  who  are  still  eager  in  their  study  of  the 
Holy  Book,  is  in  his  element.'  He  loves  to  teach  and  to 
preach  the  Gospel,  and  he  does  a  good  deal  in  the  way  of 
practising  it,  too.  "When  I  saw  him  the  next  day  in  his 
place  of  business,  which  is  such  a  centre  of  activity  as 
would  keep  most  men's  heads  in  a  whirl,  he  was  as  calm 
as  a  Summer's  morning — not  troubled  in  mind  by  the 
attacks  upon  him  because  of  the  part  he  took  in  the  late 
election,  nor  carried  off  his  feet  by  any  political  ambition. 
Indeed  I  believe  he  would  rather  be  at  the  head  of  his 
Sunday-school  than  in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Harrison, 
though  he  might  be  both.  The  fact  that  he  has  wrought 
so  faithfully  in  the  one,  certainly  does  not  unfit  him  for 
the  other.  I  envy  him,  not  for  his  wealth  or  worldly  suc- 
cess, nor  any  political  distinction  which  he  may  attain,  but 
for  the  good  that  he  has  done  among  those  for  whom  the 
rich  generally  care  but  little  ;  so  that  at  the  last,  when  he 
comes  into  the  heavenly  kingdom,  he  will  not  come  alone, 
but  will  have  a  great  multitude  of  children,  and  of  the 
poor  and  the  lowly,  to  keep  him  company. 

But  Philadelphia  is  setting  New  York  an  example  in 
other  things  than  Sunday-schools,  the  last  and  greatest 
of  which  is  a  Tabernacle  for  Working-men,  an  immense 
structure,  in  which  there  is  not  only  a  church  for  rehgious 
services,  but  reception-rooms,  a  hall  for  popular  lectures, 
and  an  infirmary  for  the  treatment  of  diseases  of  the  eye 
and  ear,  the  throat  and  lungs — a  treatment  which,  as  it 
requires  the  skill  ot  specialists,  is  on  that  account  so  costly 


12  THE   BEACON   CHURCH, 

as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  working  men,  but  which  is 
here  provided  without  cost.  This  part  of  the  general  plan 
has  been  in  operation  for  two  years,  in  which  time,  even 
with  the  limited  accommodation,  it  has  furnished  relief  to 
over  seven  thousand  patients. 

The  planting  of  such  a  structure  right  against  the 
walls  of  the  sanctuary,  with  doors  opening  from  one  into 
the  other,  is  a  combination  of  the  religious  with  the 
humane,  which  carries  out  the  spirit  of  Him  who  went 
about  doing  good  to  the  bodies  as  well  as  the  souls  of  men. 
The  church  itself  is  so  arranged  as  to  invite  the  working 
classes.  Instead  of  being  patterned  after  the  stiff  and 
stately  style  of  architecture,  in  which  elaborate  carving  and 
florid  decoration,  and  the  general  air  of  costliness,  serve  as 
a  warning  to  all  who  may  be  "  in  vUe  raiment "  to  keep 
away,  this  "  Beacon  Church  "  is  constructed  for  a  popular 
assembly,  its  seats  being  ranged  in  the  form  of  an  amphi- 
theatre, with  great  galleries  into  which  crowds  can  pour, 
and  in  which  a  working-man  would  not  hesitate  to  take  his 
seat  in  his  work-day  clothes,  if  he  had  no  other,  with  his 
wife  and  children,  to  hear  anybody  who  has  the  art  of 
speaking  so  as  to  touch  his  heart.  And  yet  there  is  nothing 
about  it  cheap  and  mean-looking  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
quite  grand  from  its  size  and  massiveness.  In  short,  it  is 
a  church  good  enough  for  the  best,  and  not  too  good  for 
the  humblest,  to  which  therefore  both  extremes  of  society 
may  gravitate  by  a  common  impulse,  so  that  "the  rich  and 
the  poor  may  sit  together,  and  feel  that  God  is  the  Maker 
of  them  all." 

But  the  design  of  course  was  chiefly  for  the  working- 
men,  as  is  indicated  by  the  location,  in  a  distant  part  of 
Philadelphia — perhaps  four  miles  from  Chestnut  street. 
It  took  us  nearly  an  hour  to  drive  there.  But  for  all 
that,  it  is  not  beyond  the  reach  of  a  dense  population. 


DESIGNED  FOR  WORKING-MEN.  13 

as  it  is  in  the  midst  of  large  manufactories,  that  employ- 
thousands  of  working-men  and  working-women,  for  whom 
this  is  intended  to  be  a  rallying  centre,  and  a  fountain  of 
all  good  influences. 

The  carrying  out  of  this  grand  idea  is  due  to  the 
unwearied  labors  of  Dr.  Francis  L.  Bobbins,  who  has  given 
his  whole  heart  to  it  for  several^years,  and  who  must  have 
felt  rewarded  as  he  saw  the  gi*eat  demonstration  of  Sunday 
evening.  The  church,  which  wiU  hold  three  thousand 
people,  was  not  only  filled,  but  blockaded  —  floor  and 
galleries  and  aisles,  and  every  passage-way  to  the  outer 
doors.  On  the  platform  sat  Mr.  Morton,  who  is  the  uncle 
of  Mrs.  Robbins,  and  who  had  come  on  from  New  York 
especially  to  be  at  tliis  service  ;  and  beside  him,  Mr.  Drexel 
and  Mr.  George  W.  Childs,  Mr.  Wanamaker,  and  others 
who  are  weU  known  as  men  who  put  their  hands  to  every 
good  work.  I  have  rarely  looked  in  the  face  a  more 
inspiring  audience,  and  the  tone  of  all  the  speeches  was 
one  of  hope  and  congratulation.  AU  felt  that  this  was  a 
step  in  the  right  direction  ;  that  it  tended  to  solve  the 
problem  of  reaching  the  masses  with  the  Gospel ;  that  it 
bridged  the  chasm  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  bringing 
them  nearer  together,  and  both  under  the  influence  of 
that  Religion  which  is  the  only  solid  foundation  of  social 
harmony  and  national  prosperity. 

After  the  Sabbath  was  past,  I  lingered  awhile  in  this 
goodly  city  to  inhale  the  air  of  a  place  that  is  always  restful 
to  me.  There  are  no  ups  and  downs  to  cause  unwary  feet 
to  stumble  :  all  is  plain  and  straight  before  my  face.  The 
city  lieth  four  square,  like  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  its 
surface  is  plain  and  smooth,  as  all  the  ways  of  life  ought 
to  be  ;  and  the  streets  run  at  right  angles,  and  are  so 
carefully  named  and  numbered  that  "  the  wayfaring  man 
need  not  err  therein."      There  is  a  quaint  harmony  in 


U  THE  CITY  OF  PEACE. 

the  domestic  architecture,  there  being  some  hundreds  of 
thousands,  more  or  less,  of  houses,  all  with  the  same  brick 
fronts,  the  same  doors  and  windows,  and  the  same  white 
doorsteps,  the   daily  washing  of  which  is  the  badge  of 
respectability,  if  it  be  not  indeed  "  the  outward  and  visible 
sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace."     It  is  a  moral 
lesson  to  watch  the  people  in  the  streets,  who  do  not  rush 
about  with  undue  precipitation,  but  walk  with  measured 
steps,  in  which  there  is  a  kind  of  slow  rhythm,  that  insen- 
sibly subdues  the  stranger  to  the  same  dignity  and  repose. 
All  these  things  work  in  me  a  calm  and  equable  frame 
of  mind  ;  and  when  I  have  been  up  to  the  Presbyterian 
House,  and  talked  with  "  all  the  holy  brethren,"  and  been 
assured  that  every  department  of  our  ecclesiastical  ma- 
chinery is  in  perfect  order  ;  and  to  the  editorial  rooms 
of  "The  Presbyterian"  and  "The  Journal,"  and  meekly 
inquired  as  to  the  prospects  of  union  between  the  Churches 
North  and  South,  and  have  them  both  (though  their  views 
are  exactly  opposite)  tell  me  confidentially  that  "  it  is  all 
coming  out  right,"  I  am  greatly  relieved  in  mind.     Then  I 
need  only  to  ride  down  town,  and  look  into  the  untroubled 
face  of  that  model  gentleman,  George  W.  Childs  ;  and  to 
sit  with  Mr.  Drexel  in  his  banking  house — a  man  who  is  as 
simple  as  if  he  were  not  a  king  in  the  world  of  finance — 
and  hear  him  speak  hopefully  of  the  prospects  of  the 
business  world  ;  to  be  quite  relieved  of  any  fears  for  the 
country,  under  whatever  administration  it  may  be.     It  is 
thus  that  Philadelphia  quiets  my  nerves   and  cools  my 
blood,  and  leads  me  to  think  that  the  world  is  not  going 
to  the  bad,  after  all.      God   bless  the  dear  old  city  of 
Franklin  and  of  William  Penn,  whose  spirit  of  peace  and 
of  brotherhood  abides  upon  her  still — a  city  rich  in  its 
commerce  and  its  accumulated  wealth,  but  richer  stiU  in 
its  noble  men  and  women  I 


WASHINGTON  AS  A  PLACE  OF  EXILE.  15 

"Washington  is  another  city  of  refuge  for  me,  when  I 
am  ordered  away  from  home  in  search  of  a  milder  climate. 
There,  hard  by  the  Capitol,  is  a  wide,  roomy  house,  in 
which  everything  is,  like  its  possessor,  large  and  generous, 
with  a  great  library,  which  is  the  very  paradise  of  a  scholar. 
Here  the  sunshine  pours  in  all  day  long,  and  the  weary 
pilgrim  can  enjoy  the  "  sunshine  cure,"  for  there  is  sun- 
shine without  and  within.  The  master  of  this  hospitable 
mansion,  when  in  college,  bore  the  proud  title  of  Magnus 
AgeVj  to  distinguish  him  from  a  smaller  edition  of  the  same 
stock,  who,  being  the  very  least,  or  Httlest,  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah,  had  the  diminutive  appellation  of  Parvus  Ager, 
These  college  names  indicated  the  relations  which  existed 
between  the  two,  and  which  continue  stiU,  for  never  am  I 
"  in  any  trouble  of  mind,  body  or  estate,"  that  I  do  not 
turn  to  him  who  is  "  older  and  wiser "  ;  and  to  this  day, 
when  I  find  myself  in  the  arms  of  this  big-brained,  big- 
breasted,  big-hearted  brother,  I  feel  that  I  am  about  as 
near  "  the  realm  where  love  abides  "  as  I  expect  to  be  till 
I  pass  over  the  river. 

The  afternoon  that  I  arrived  the  large  house  had  been 
the  scene  of  a  reception  at  which  there  had  been  a  bril- 
liant array  of  Washington  society,  in  which  Mr.  Blaine, 
who  attracted  aU  eyes,  divided  attention  with  the  Chinese 
Ambassador.  For  aU  this  I  came  too  late,  for  which  I 
was  not  sorry,  as  nothing  fatigues  me  so  much  as  a  crowd, 
and  there  were  over  four  hundred  guests.  So  I  was  con- 
tent to  hear  all  about  it,  and  to  receive  the  report  as  one 
listening  to  the  faint  murmur  of  the  outer  world,  when  it 
is  so  soft  and  gentle  as  not  to  disturb  the  peace  and  hap- 
piness within.  These  are  the  consolations  of  exile.  And 
so  I  find  that  to  be  banished  is  not  a  cruel  punishment,  if 
one  may  choore  his  place  of  exile,  in  which  case  I  should 
certainly  choose  Washington. 


CHAPTEB  n. 

OVER  THE  MOUNTAINS— ASHEVILLB  AND  KNOXYILLE— 
A   REMINISCENCE   OF   THE   WAR. 

"  On  to  Eichmond  "  was  the  cry  in  the  early  days  of 
the  war  :  but  it  took  our  armies  four  years  to  make  the 
distance  which  I  now  made  in  four  hours.  As  I  passed 
through  it,  I  caught  sight  of  a  familiar  face,  that  of  the 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  who  had  showed  me  so  much  kind- 
ness in  Madrid,  and  now  came  to  speed  me  on  my  way, 
only  exacting  a  promise  that  I  should  pay  him  a  visit  on 
my  return.  With  such  friendly  benedictions  we  glided 
away  towards  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  for  though  I  had 
been  ordered  to  the  South,  it  was  with  full  liberty  as  to 
the  route  I  should  take,  so  that  I  could  "  meander  "  hither 
and  thither,  towards  the  mountains  or  the  sea. 

From  Richmond  the  direct  route  to  Florida  is  by  the 
Atlantic  Coast  line,  passing  through  Charleston  and  Savan- 
nah, by  which  one  who  takes  the  Vestibule  Train  in  New 
York,  can  be  transported,  with  the  greatest  possible  com- 
fort, to  Jacksonville,  in  thirty  hours,  and  in  two  hours  more 
to  St.  Augustine.  But  I  was  in  no  such  pressing  haste. 
My  orders  were  only  to  keep  moving  southward,  getting 
all  the  while  into  a  milder  climate.    With  this  liberty,  I 


IN  WESTERN  NORTH  CAROLINA.  It 

followed  my  usual  bent  in  turning  aside,  as  the  fancy  took 
me,  to  places  of  interest,  to  reach  my  destination  at  last, 
though  in  a  roundabout  way.  On  the  western  border  of 
Virginia  is  a  chain  of  mountains,  full  of  wild  and  beautiful 
scenery,  to  see  which,  instead  of  going  directly  South,  I 
turned  to  the  Southwest,  and  the  next  morning  found  my- 
self at  Asheville,  in  North  Carolina,  a  place  which  has  of 
late  become  one  of  the  most  famous  resorts  in  the  country. 
Its  attractions  are  those  of  scenery  and  climate.  It  lies  in 
the  lap  of  mountains,  being  itself  at  an  elevation  of  more 
than  two  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  air 
that  sweeps  through  these  pine  forests  is  pure  and  bracing, 
while  even  the  hill-tops  are  protected  by  ranges  of  moun- 
tains from  the  storms  of  the  North.  If  a  blizzard  from 
Dakota,  having  lost  its  way,  comes  thundering  down  upon 
the  Alleghanies,  it  is  caught  by  these  snowy  peaks,  some  of 
which  are  six  or  seven  thousand  feet  high,  and  tossed  into 
the  upper  sky,  while  the  air  is  kept  untroubled  below.  To 
this  position  is  due  the  remarkable  evenness  of  tempera- 
ture. Surrounded  and  protected  by  these  guardian 
mountains,  Asheville  knows  nothing  of  the  extremes  of 
climate.  It  is  never  very  hot,  nor  very  cold.  For  this 
reason  it  is  a  resort  all  the  year  round,  in  the  Winter  being 
taken  possession  of  by  Northerners,  who  at  this  moment 
throng  the  corridors  of  the  Battery  Park  Hotel  (one  of  the 
best  hotels  in  all  the  South),  but  who  at  the  approach  of 
Summer  return  to  their  own  beautiful  country  seats  on  the 
Hudson,  or  in  New  England,  while  their  places  here  are 
filled  by  Southerners,  who  find  this  Hill  Country  a  welcome 
retreat  from  the  lowlands  of  the  Carolinas  or  the  Gulf 
States. 

The  region  so  healthful  is  equally  remarkable  for  beauty, 
as  one  can  see  even  from  the  hotel,  which  stands  on  a  hill- 
top, with  the  ground  sloping  from  it  on  every  side,  so  that 


18  ashevillb: 

from  mj  window  I  look  down  into  a  deep  gorge  that  is 
shut  in  by  the  Eastern  hiDs,  oyer  which  comes  the  first 
^eam  of  the  morning  son ;  and  walking  round  the  wide 
TerandaSy  I  can  be  in  the  sonshine  all  day  long,  from  sun- 
rise to  sunset 

But  for  an  this  I  should  not  have  known  how  Teiy 
besatifnl  the  conntrr  was,  and  should  haTe  gone  away 
wiUi  eyes  but  half  opened,  if  a  gentleman  who  lives  in 
Ashernie,  and  is  a  hirge  landed  proprietor,  had  not  taken 
me  to  points  of  Tiew  which  a  sizanger  might  not  discoTer. 
'Baa  was  Mr.  Pierson,  a  brother-in-law  of  Dr.  Carry,  to 
whom  the  latter  had  entmsted  me  as  his  friend,  and  who 
therefore  took  me  in  charge  as  if  I  were  an  old  acquaint- 
ance. Driving  me  out  of  town  two  or  three  miles,  he  led 
the  way  to  a  lull  on  which  he  is  building  a  house  for  him- 
sel^  a  point  of  view  from  which  the  *eye  takes  in  a  circuit 
of  fifty  miles,  within  which  is  included  every  variety  of 
landscape.  How  many  peaks  there  are  on  the  horizon,  I 
"win  not  pretend  to  say.  On  the  west  are  the  Smoky 
Mountains  of  Tennessee,  which  figure  so  much  in  the 
stories  of  Cbaiies  Egbert  Graddock,  while  northward  and 
aoothwaid  are  the  mountains  of  Yrrginia  and  the  Oarolinas. 
Nor  is  that  other  element  of  beauty  in  a  landscape,  water, 
wanting.  At  the  very  foot  of  the  hill  flows  the  "  French 
Broad,"  a  river  worthy  of  its  name,  which  in  its  volume 
and  swiftness  reminds  one  of  the  most  famous  river  of 
Europe,  as  it  ''nobly  foams  and  flows"  with  a  majesty 
almost  like  that  of  the  Bhine. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  beautiful  place  near  Ashe- 
vifle.  On  the  other  side  of  tiie  town  is  another  more 
finished,  which  by  a  carious  coincidence  belongs  to  another 
biother-in-law  of  Dr.  Cuny,  CoL  Connelly,  a  brave  Confed- 
erate officer,  who  lost  an  arm  at  Gettysbury,  but  who 
"  bates  not  a  jot  of  heart  or  hope,"  and  divides  his  time, 


ITS  BEAUTIFUL  EXVIR0K8.  19 

with  almost  equal  enthusiasm,  between  the  care  of  his 
estate  and  the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  latter  amounts  to 
a  holv  passion  with  him.  I  found  him  with  his  dictionaries 
and  reference  books  wide  open  on  his  table,  and  he  told 
me  that  he  dcToted  to  this  study  six  hours  a  day !  From 
his  library  he  has  but  to  step  out  upon  a  broad  balcony, 
to  look  round  wpon  a  scene  as  fair  to  the  eye  as  that 
which  Moses  saw  from  the  top  of  Pisgah.  Indeed  he  has 
the  advantage  of  Moses,  in  that  he  has  already  entered 
into  his  Promised  Land,  while  Moses  could  only  see  his 
from  a  distance.  Men  who  are  devout  lovers  of  both  nature 
and  the  Bible,  cannot  help  illustrating  their  ideas  of  one 
from  what  they  see  of  the  other,  and  I  doubt  not  the 
gallant  Colonel,  as  he  looks  across  to  the  rich  meadows 
on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  has  visions  of  "  green  fields 
beyond  the  swelling  flood,"  and  as  the  sun  goes  down  in 
the  west,  and  every  mormtain  peak  is  tipped  with  fire,  he 
may  weU  think  that  he  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  heavenly 
towers  and  battlements. 

In  truth,  it  is  an  enchanting  country,  bringing  forth  in 
abundance  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  "Why  do  not  the 
farmers  uf  New  England,  who  find  their  winters  long  and 
bitterly  cold,  and  their  soils  hard  and  unproductive,  seek 
new  homes  here  in  this  milder  climate,  with  this  richer 
soil,  instead  of  going  off  to  the  most  distant  territories? 
It  would  be  a  delightful  change.  Our  good  Presbyterians 
would  find  themselves  at  home,  for  AshevOle  has  its  Pres- 
byterian church,  with  an  excellent  pastor.  Many  of  them 
would  Hve  longer  and  make  a  living  easier  ;  for  the  soil  is 
rich  and  productive,  and  they  would  not  be  so  far  away 
from  the  homes  of  their  childhood,  as  if  they  had  emigrat- 
ed to  Idaho  or  Montana. 

When  we  left  Asheville,  we  kept  stfll  westward,  down 
the  valley  of  the  French  Broad,  which  opened  manj  a 


20  KNOXVILLE. 

pretty  vista  as  we  wotind  along  its  banks,  till  we  came  to 
where  the  hills  parted,  and  in  the  green  intervale  between, 
bubble  up  the  Hot  Springs,  whose  medicinal  qualities  have 
made  it  a  great  resort,  both  for  invalids  and  for  the  fash- 
ionable world.  Here  is  a  hotel  of  such  dimensions  and  so 
well  appointed  as  to  suggest  that  some  Eastern  capitalists 
have  been  putting  their  money  into  it ;  and  inquiring,  I 
learned  that  my  old  friends,  George  F.  Baker  (President 
of  the  First  National  Bank  of  New  York)  and  Henry  C. 
Fahnestock,  whose  long  arms  reach  out  in  many  directions, 
had  found  this  lovely  spot,  and  picked  up  a  trifle  of  a  few 
thousand  acres  among  the  mountains  of  North  CaroHna. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  Hot  Springs,  we  cross  the  border- 
line, and  are  in  Tennessee.  Like  the  other  States  which 
he  along  the  great  Appalachian  chain,  it  has  a  broad 
expanse,  stretching  from  the  mountains  to  the  river,  with 
its  head  lifted  into  the  clouds,  while  its  feet  are  dipped  in 
the  Father  of  Waters.  It  is  almost  an  Alpine  region 
through  which  we  enter  the  State,  winding  upward  till,  a 
little  after  noon,  we  halt  at  Knoxville,  the  capital  of  East 
Tennessee.  A  long  street  leads  up  to  the  centre  of  the 
town,  where,  in  the  early  settlement,  were  erected  the 
Court  House  and  other  public  buildings,  as  a  nucleus  for 
the  gathering  population.  Knoxville  is  a  place  which  has 
a  history,  being  one  of  the  first  settlements  west  of  the 
mountains.  Of  course  I  could  not  be  in  such  a  historic 
city  even  for  a  few  hours  without  a  desire  to  know  all 
about  it ;  but  there  was  no  one  to  tell  me,  for  as  I  had  not 
been  quite  sure  of  my  own  route,  I  had  come  without 
introductions.  In  this  extremity,  I  did  what  I  have  some- 
times done  before — inquired  for  the  nearest  Presbyterian 
minister,  and  being  directed  to  the  parsonage,  introduced 
myself  to  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Park.    I  found  him  a  man  of  stalwart  proportions,  with  a 


GROWTH  OP  THE  CITY.  21 

beard  which  gave  him  a  patriarchal  appearance,  who,  when 
he  had  looked  me  over,  and  concluded  that  I  was  "all 
right,"  invited  me  into  his  house,  and  gave  me  a  seat  before 
an  open  fire  which  warmed  us  both,  and  in  the  glow  of 
which  we  soon  got  acquainted ;  and  he  ended  by  taking  a 
buggy  and  driving  me  about  the  town,  by  which  I  learn- 
ed more  of  its  history  in  a  few*  hours  than  I  could  have 
learned  by  myself  in  a  week.  Naturally  the  first  object  of 
interest  was  his  own  church,  which  is  the  mother  of  all  the 
churches,  in  whose  graveyard  sleep  many  of  Tennessee's 
illustrious  dead,  among  them  the  Hon.  Hugh  L.  White, 
once  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 
Among  the  living  relics  of  other  days  is  Mrs.  Ramsey,  the 
widow  of  the  historian  of  Tennessee,  to  whom  I  was  glad 
to  pay  my  respects. 

And  now  for  a  stretch  over  the  hills.  Knoxville  is 
a  city  of  hills  as  much  as  Rome  ever  was,  though  I  think 
there  must  be  more  than  seven  here.  As  we  passed  from 
one  hilltop  to  another,  my  venerable  guide  was  full  of  the 
information  for  which  I  was  eager.  We  found  that  the 
city  was  growing  on  every  side.  New  streets  and  avenues 
were  being  opened,  and  the  sound  of  the  hammer  in  many 
quarters  told  of  the  multiplication  of  dwellings  to  provide 
for  the  increase  of  inhabitants.  Few  cities  in  the  United 
States  have  grown  so  rapidly  in  the  last  decade.  "In 
1880,"  said  Dr.  Park,  "the  population,  according  to  the 
census,  was  10,500.  To-day  it  is  43,000.  Thus  within 
these  nine  years  it  has  increased  fourfold !  "  And  very- 
pleasant  it  was  to  see  the  homes  that  were  provided  for 
he  incoming  multitude  ;  that,  instead  of  the  houses  being 
crowded  in  blocks,  plastered  together  like  so  many  bricks 
in  a  wall,  they  stood  apart,  each  in  its  little  plot  of  ground, 
with  a  pretty  yard  in  front,  and  room  for  flowers  and  vines, 
wh  ich  not  only  gave  a  look  of  beauty  as  seen  from  without. 


22  HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATIONS. 

but  were  suggestive  of  taste  and  refinement  within.  All  this 
is  a  token  of  the  general  cultivation  which  becomes  a  city 
enthroned  upon  the  hiUs.  It  would  seem  to  be  just  the 
place  for  literary  institutions  ;  nor  was  I  surprised  to  find 
one  of  its  hills  already  crowned  by  the  University  of  Ten- 
nessee. 

But  one  thing  more  remained,  and  that  was  a  visit  to  a 
point  of  great  historical  interest  in  the  late  war.  The 
people  of  Tennessee  were  generally  opposed  to  secession, 
but  when  the  State  Government  cast  in  its  lot  with  the 
South,  many  felt  that  it  was  the  part  of  patriotism  to  share 
its  fate.  Others  left  their  homes,  and  making  their  way 
across  the  mountains  into  Kentucky,  joined  the  Union 
armies.  Thus  East  Tennessee  was  between  two  fires,  but 
no  great  event  occurred  till  near  the  close  of  1863,  when 
KnoxviUe  had  a  siege  and  a  defence  that  were  among  the 
most  notable  in  the  war.  That  I  might  understand  it 
better.  Dr.  Park  drove  me  to  Fort  Sanders,  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  which  was  the  scene  of  the  conflict.  Here,  as 
we  stood  on  an  angle  of  the  old  earthworks,  he  indicated 
to  me  the  position  of  the  two  armies,  tiU  it  was  all  spread 
out  before  me  as  on  a  map. 

To  know  the  momentous  importance  of  what  was  here 
to  take  place,  I  must  recall  to  my  readers  the  situation  at 
the  moment,  which  was  one  of  the  most  critical  of  the  war. 
The  year  1863  had  seen  great  events.  After  the  disasters 
of  Fredericksburg  and  ChanceUorsviUe,  had  come  the  inva- 
sion of  Pennsylvania,  that  was  beaten  back  by  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  a  victory  which  elated  the  North  as  much 
as  the  previous  defeats  had  depressed  it.  But  now  came 
another  tremendous  blow  at  Chickamauga — a  battle  of 
which  I  have  always  had  a  very  vivid  impression  from  the 
description  given  me  by  General  Garfield.  Again  the 
country  was  in  great  anxiety.     Grant  was  sent  to  Chatta- 


A  RExMINISCENCB  OF  THE  WAR.  23 

nooga  to  take  command,  and  fresh  troops  from  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  were  whirled  with  incredible  speed  over 
the  mountains,  across  the  Ohio,  and  down  into  Tennessee. 
Meanwhile  Bragg  held  his  position  in  front  of  Chattanooga, 
his  army  stretching  for  miles  along  Missionary  Bidge. 
The  two  armies  were  in  sight  of  each  other  ;  they  could 
see  each  other's  camp  fires,  and  both  were  preparing 
for  the  inevitable  struggle.  At  this  moment  Bragg,  with 
what  seemed  an  infatuation,  detached  Longstreet,  his  best 
corps  commander,  to  move  to  the  North,  and  take  Knox- 
ville,  which  was  an  important  point  of  communication 
between  the  western  portion  of  the  Confederacy  and  Rich- 
mond. Perhaps  he  thought  it  an  easy  matter,  which  could 
be  done  in  a  few  days,  and  that  Longstreet  could  return  in 
time  for  the  great  battle  that  was  approaching.  But  it  was 
not  so  easy.  Knoxville,  with  the  country  below  it,  was 
held  by  Bumside,  not  in  great  force,  but  with  troops  suf- 
ficient at  least  to  check  and  harass  the  enemy.  Grant 
watched  the  whole  movement  with  the  utmost  satisfaction, 
for  it  suited  his  military  plans  to  have  this  strong  force 
out  of  his  way,  and  he  sent  orders  to  Burnside  to  oppose 
Longstreet  at  every  step,  so  as  to  delay  his  progress,  and 
yet  to  fall  back  after  every  engagement,  so  as  to  draw  him  on, 
and  as  he  expressed  it,  "  toll  him  over  the  river,"  and  then 
to  hold  Knoxville  at  all  hazards. 

Never  were  orders  more  faithfully  carried  out.  Keep- 
ing on  the  defensive,  Burnside  pursued  the  policy  of 
fighting  and  retreating,  till  his  troops,  worn  out  with 
marching  and  battle,  dragged  themselves  over  the  hillH  and 
into  Knoxville. 

Of  all  this  Dr.  Park  was  himself  an  eye-witness.  He 
said  :  "  I  was  then  pastor  of  a  church  ten  miles  south  of 
Knoxville,  and  saw  both  armies  as  they  marched  by.  First 
came  the  Federals  :  they  passed  my  door,  numbers  of  the 


24  THE  SIEGE  OF  KNOXVILLE. 

officers  were  in  my  house,  and  spoke  freely  of  the  situation, 
anticipating  defeat ;  and  when  the  next  day  Longstreet 
appeared,  and  began  to  ask  about  the  roads  this  side  and 
that  side  of  Knoxville,  I  said  to  him,  '  You  need  only  to 
march  straight  against  the  city,  and  send  in  a  flag  of  truce, 
with  a  summons,  to  receive  an  immediate  surrender ! ' " 
This  was  no  doubt  good  sound  Presbyterian  doctrine,  but 
perhaps  the  old  soldier  thought  he  was  a  better  judge  than 
even  the  most  orthodox  minister.  However,  the  latter 
maintains  to  this  day,  that  if  his  advice  had  been  followed, 
the  place  would  have  fallen.  Certainly  it  was  in  imminent 
peril,  and  every  moment  that  the  attack  could  be  delayed 
was  a  gain  to  Burnside.  No  sooner  had  he  entered  the 
town,  than  his  troops,  though  ready  to  drop  with  fatigue 
aaid  cold  and  hunger,  were  set  to  work  with  spade  and 
shovel ;  and  the  people  of  the  place,  white  and  black,  were 
pressed  into  the  service  ;  and  all  together  worked  day  and 
night,  resting  but  two  hours  in  the  twenty-four  ;  while  a 
force  of  700  cavalry,  harassing  the  Confederates,  delayed 
their  advance,  till  their  camps  were  pitched  in  sight  of  the 
town,  when  the  place  was  in  a  state  of  defence  that  render- 
ed it  possible  to  hold  it.  For  ten  days  the  siege  went  on. 
Longstreet  took  it  deliberately,  perhaps  thinking  that  he 
had  a  sure  thing  ;  that  Burnside  was  caged  where  he  could 
not  escape,  but  as  time  became  more  pressing  he  determin- 
ed to  carry  the  place  by  assault.  This  is  bloody  business, 
but  it  is  soon  over.  Dr.  Park  pointed  out  just  where  he 
planted  his  batteries,  and  the  slope  up  which  the  attack 
must  come.  The  garrison  had  cut  away  the  trees  so  as  to 
have  free  range  for  their  guns,  and  strung  telegraph-wires 
from  stump  to  stump  to  trip  the  feet  of  the  charging 
column.  Longstreet  had  given  express  orders  that  the 
assault  should  be  made  with  a  rush,  for  he  knew  well  that 
up  troops  could  stand  for  many  minutes  the  withering  fire 


TERRIBLE  SLAUGHTER.  25 

that  would  be  opened  upon  tliem.  Having  thus  issued  the 
order  of  battle,  he  waited  only  for  daybreak.  Just  as  the 
sun  rose  the  flag  of  the  Fort  soared  to  the  peak,  and  the 
band  saluted  it  with  the  Star  Spangled  Banner.  On  the 
instant  fi'om  without  the  walls  there  rose  a  wild  yell,  as  the 
troops  that  had  crept  up  the  slope  under  cover  of  a  fog 
rushed  to  the  assault.  The  same  moment  the  earthworks 
were  crested  with  flame,  and  shot  and  shell  tore  through 
the  Confederates.  Yet  on  they  came,  like  the  waves  of  the 
sea,  dashed  up  by  the  tremendous  force  behind.  Men 
rushed  into  the  ditch  and  struggled  up  the  embankment, 
but  the  fire  was  incessant ;  and  to  add  to  the  destruction, 
hand-grenades  were  thrown  by  the  hundred  to  explode  in 
the  mass  below.  Still  the  suiTivors  climbed  over  the 
bodies  of  the  fallen,  and  battle-flags  were  planted  on  the 
parapet,  to  be  instantly  torn  down.  An  officer  planting 
his  hand  on  a  gun,  demanded  surrender,  and  was  blown 
into  eternity.  Such  a  fire  no  human  endurance  could 
stand  long.  In  five  minutes  it  was  all  over.  Seven  hun- 
dred men  lay  dead  or  dying  in  the  trench  below,  and  three 
hundred  were  taken  prisoners.  The  siege  of  Knoxville 
was  ended.  The  city  remained  in  Union  hands,  but  the 
assault  was  one  in  which  the  glory  was  divided  :  for  never 
was  greater  courage  shown  in  an  assault,  as  never  was  a 
besieged  place  more  bravely  defended. 

And  now  here  were  we,  two  ministers  of  the  Gospel, 
standing  on  the  top  of  the  old  earthworks,  and  talking  it 
all  over.  My  friend  is  an  intense  Southerner  (for  which  I 
don't  blame  him),  and  I  thought  had  a  lingering  regret 
that  Longstreet  had  not  followed  his  advice  ;  but  still, 
inasmuch  as  he  is  a  good  Presbyterian  and  a  devout 
beUever  in  Divine  decrees,  that  "  whatsoever  is  ordained 
surely  cometh  to  pass,"  I  think  he  is  willing  to  submit  to 
the  decision  of  the  Almighty. 


26  A  UNION  MAN  DURINa  THE  WAR. 

It  was  a  thrilling  story,  which  had  tenfold  interest 
when  recalled  on  the  very  spot  where  the  events  took 
place,  and  I  was  extremely  grateful  to  the  best  of  guides 
who  had  brought  me  here,  as  well  as  for  all  his  kindness 
and  courtesy  to  "  a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger." 

But  the  hospitality  of  Knoxville  did  not  end  here.  As 
we  rode  back  into  town,  we  met  at  a  great  warehouse  in 
the  main  street  a  notable  citizen,  Mr.  Perez  Dickinson,  a 
New  Englander  by  birth,  a  native  of  Amherst,  Mass.,  but 
who  has  lived  here  fifty-nine  years,  remaining  through  the 
war,  though  he  was  known  as  a  Union  man,  and  would 
never  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Confederacy.  As 
his  carriage  was  at  the  door,  he  bade  me  "  come  up  into 
the  chariot,"  and  took  me  off  to  his  house,  and  kept  me  to 
tea  and  through  the  evening,  during  which,  as  we  sat 
before  the  fire,  I  asked  him  innumerable  questions,  and 
learned  more  about  East  Tennessee,  its  early  history,  the 
character  of  its  first  settlers  (who  were  in  the  main  of 
Scotch-Irish  descent),  and  of  the  late  war,  including  the 
memorable  siege,  than  I  ever  knew  before,  and  now  con- 
sider myself  (at  least  among  those  who  are  as  ignorant 
as  I  was)  an  authority  on  the  subject.  At  nine  o'clock 
the  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  which  is  connected 
with  the  Northern  Assembly,  called  and  accompanied  me  to 
the  station,  where  I  took  the  night  train  for  Chattanooga. 


CHAPTEK  in. 

LOOKOUT  MOUNTAIN WAR  MEMORIES ATLANTA. 

It  was  after  midniglit  when  we  left  KnoxviUe.  In 
turning  southward,  we  passed  over  the  very  route  by  which 
Longstreet  had  come  up  the  valley  of  the  Tennessee,  to 
make  the  assault  which  I  have  briefly  described  ;  and  as  I 
was  fuU  of  the  history,  it  took  such  hold  of  my  imagina- 
tion that  I  seemed  now  and  then  to  hear  the  tramp  of 
armed  men,  and  the  rumbling  of  the  artillery  wagons  as 
they  moved  forward  to  battle.  But  it  was  a  relief  to  wake 
and  find  that  such  visions  were  only  in  my  dreams,  and 
that  when  I  looked  out  through  the  curtains  of  my  window, 
I  could  not  see  a  single  camp-fire,  nor  hear  a  sound  but 
that  of  the  wind  whispering  through  the  forest.  When 
morning  came,  we  were  drawing  into  Chattanooga,  and  as 
a  hungry  traveller,  I  was  looking  round  for  a  breakfast, 
when  I  was  saluted  by  a  familiar  voice — that  of  Mr.  S.  A. 
Cunningham  of  the  Nashville  American,  to  f  whom  I  had 
telegraphed  that  I  was  to  take  this  route,  and  who  had  come 
all  the  way  from  Nashville  to  meet  me.  It  was  a  pleasant 
surprise,  and  of  course  I  gave  up  at  once  the  idea  of  going 
on  directly  to  Atlanta,  and  accepted  his  suggestion  to  spend 
the  forenoon  upon  Lookout  Mountain.     This  is  not  at  all 


28  LOOKOUT  MOUNTAIN. 

difficult,  as  a  street-car  takes  you  to  its  foot,  from  which  a 
railway,  rising  at  a  sharp  angle,  lifts  you  to  the  top.  This  is 
not  the  most  romantic  way  of  climbing  a  mountain.  When 
I  went  over  the  Alps  in  my  young  days,  I  preferred  to  go 
on  foot,  with  alpenstock  in  hand,  and  a  trusty  guide  to 
lead  the  way,  though  of  late  I  confess  that  when  I  come  to 
the  Rhigi,  which  is  a  pretty  long  puU,  I  am  wiUing  to  take 
steam  as  a  substitute  for  legs.  It  saves  an  immense 
amount  of  muscle,  as  it  does  here,  and  there  is  a  pleasant 
sensation  in  being  carried  up,  as  in  the  chariot  of  Elijah, 
and  alighting  on  a  mountain  peak.  The  car  stops  at  the 
extreme  end  of  the  ridge,  where  stands  a  hotel,  planted  on 
a  ledge  of  rock,  far  above  the  "  sea  of  pines  "  that  waves 
below.  Here,  as  you  walk  round  the  broad  veranda,  you 
look  down  into  forest  depths  on  every  side,  while  you  seem 
to  be  on  a  level  with  the  eagles  that  are  soaring  into  the 
blue  vault  of  heaven. 

At  this  point  you  "  change  carriages,"  taking  another 
track,  which  runs  along  the  very  crest  of  the  mountain. 
You  are  now  in  the  rear  of  Lookout  (calling  the  side  toward 
Chattanooga  the  front),  and  as  you  pass  slowly  along  the 
edge  of  the  cliff,  j^ou  take  in  the  exact  scene  of  "  the  battle 
above  the  clouds."  My  ideas  of  It  had  been  somewhat 
vague,  and  indeed  I  had  heard  some  would-be  critics 
(who,  however,  had  never  smelt  gunpowder)  intimate  with 
a  sneer  that  this  boasted  engagement  "was  not  what  it 
was  cracked  up  to  be."  Far  be  it  from  me  to  argue  with 
such  learned  authorities ;  but  without  pretending  to  any 
military  knowledge,  I  must  say  that  my  impression  of  what 
the  battle  must  have  been  was  greatly  increased  by  what  I 
saw,  for  the  mountain  is  higher,  and  the  ascent  more  pre- 
cipitous. All  round  the  top,  it  is  so  escarped  by  nature  as 
to  present  a  succession  of  crags,  so  high  and  bold  as  to 
constitute  a  natural  fortress,  easy  of  defence,  which  the 


THE  BATTLE  ABOVE  THE  CLOUDS.  29 

bravest  soldiers  would  not  wish  to  attack  in  the  face  of  an 
enemy.  Scanning  the  position  more  closely,  we  could  see 
why  Hooker  threw  his  troops  round  the  mountain,  and 
took  it  in  the  rear,  for  here  are  points  more  accessible,  and 
the  ascent  was  through  a  forest  which  was  itself  some  pro- 
tection. As  the  advance  had  to  be  made  through  thick 
woods,  it  could  not  be  in  close 'formation,  where  a  weU- 
aimed  shot,  tearing  through  a  solid  column,  would  strike 
down  numbers.  The  companies  and  regiments  had  to  be 
broken  up  as  in  a  skirmish  line,  by  which  they  were  less 
exposed,  and  were  partly  screened  by  rocks  and  trees. 
Then,  too,  as  they  came  under  the  cliffs,  their  very  steep- 
ness was  an  advantage,  for  the  guns  above  could  not  be 
depressed  low  enough  to  do  execution.  For  this  reason 
the  mountain  batteries  were  almost  useless,  and  the  combat 
was  chiefly  with  musketry,  men  fighting  hand  to  hand. 
All  these  concessions  we  make  wiUingly,  and  yet,  when  all 
is  said  and  done,  it  was  a  daring  attempt  to  storm  that 
mountain  height,  and  the  Hteral  truth  of  history  can  take 
nothing  from  the  glory  of  "  the  battle  above  the  clouds." 

Alighting  from  the  car,  we  walked  perhaps  a  mile 
across  the  plateau  of  the  mountain.  I  was  surprised  at  its 
extent.  It  is  covered  by  a  grove,  under  the  shade  of  which 
a  large  body  of  troops  might  pitch  their  tents.  As  we 
come  to  the  other  side,  we  are  again  on  the  brow  of  a  chff, 
from  which  we  take  in  the  whole  wide  vaUey  below. 
Yonder  is  Chattanooga,  round  which,  as  a  centre,  was 
encamiped  the  army  of  Grant,  stretching  northward  as  fai* 
as  the  eye  could  reach,  while  the  army  of  Bragg  lay  in  full 
sight  of  it,  and  hardly  out  of  cannon  range.  My  friend, 
who  was  in  the  battle,  was  able  to  point  out  the  positions  of 
the  two  armies,  and  as  he  spoke  of  the  movements  of  that 
terrible  day,  it  seemed  as  if  the  roar  of  the  guns  was  stiU 
in  his  ears.     Of  the  battle  itself  the  story  has  been  told  so 


30  LOSSES  IN  THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WAR. 

often,  and  by  the  best  of  all  witnesses,  the  Commanders  on 
both  sides,  that  it  does  not  need  to  be  repeated  here.  It 
was  one  of  the  great  events  of  American  history,  which  I 
can  understand  far  better  now  from  the  hours  spent  that 
day  on  Lookout  Mountain. 

When  on  that  mountain  top,  we  were  in  the  very  centre 
of  a  theatre  of  great  events.  Only  a  few  miles  distant  is 
the  field  of  Chickamauga,  where  the  battle  was  fought  in 
SejDtember,  1863,  two  months  before  that  at  Chattanooga, 
which  followed  in  November.  A  few  months  since  there 
was  a  gathering  of  old  soldiers  at  Chickamauga,  in  which 
Federals  and  Confederates  united,  (with  Gen.  Rosecrans, 
the  leader  of  the  Union  Army,  on  one  side,  and  Gen.  John 
B.  Gordon  on  the  other,)  at  which  it  was  proposed  that  this 
historic  field  be  set  apart  by  the  Government,  as  Gettysburg 
had  been,  to  be  kept  forever  sacred  as  the  scene  of  a  martial 
prowess  such  as  has  rarely  been  recorded  in  the  annals  of 
war.  If  the  best  proof  of  courage  be  the  number  of  losses 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  combatants,  few  battles  of 
modern  times  can  be  compared  with  Chickamauga.  The 
late  Franco-German  "War  is  often  quoted  as  having  fur- 
nished an  exhibition,  not  only  of  strategic  skill  unequalled 
since  the  time  of  Napoleon,  but  of  an  impetuous  valor  that 
took  no  account  of  human  life.  Of  this  the  most  signal  dis- 
play was  at  Mars  la  Tour,  where,  a  movement  of  the  French 
army  impending  for  which  the  German  army  was  not  pre- 
pared, in  order  to  gain  afew  hours,  a  picked  corps  of  cav- 
alry was  ordered  to  dash  itself  against  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy.  Officers,  who  saw  that  such  an  attack  meant  the 
destruction  of  those  who  made  it,  protested  against  the 
sacrifice ;  but  the  imperturbable  Moltke  calmly  replied, 
"  It  is  not  a  question  of  men :  it  is  a  question  of  neces- 
sity ! "  As  the  order  to  charge  was  an  order  to  die,  the 
regitaents  drew  lots  to  determine  which  should  die  first, 


IN  THE  LINE  OF  SHERMAN^S  MARCH.  31 

and  then  one  after  the  other  rode  madly  against  the  foe. 
It  was  Balaklava  over  again,  only  on  a  larger  scale.  When 
the  remnants  of  the  squadrons  that  had  passed  through 
the  fire,  came  back  again,  one-half  of  that  splendid  corps 
was  left  upon  the  plain !  But  a  recent  report,  made  upon 
exact  returns  obtained  from  the  War  Department,  shows 
that  many  regiments  in  our  war  lost  in  a  single  battle  more 
than  half  of  the  men  who  went  into  it !  Much  as  we  de- 
plore the  fact  that  this  was  in  a  civil  war,  we  should  not 
be  worthy  of  the  name  of  Americans  if  we  could  forget 
such  splendid  courage. 

The  battle  of  Chattanooga  virtually  ended  the  cam- 
paign of  1863.  Bragg  withdrew  his  army  forty  miles  far- 
ther south  to  Dalton,  where  the  narrow  vaUey  broadens 
into  a  space  sufficient  for  a  large  camping-ground.  He 
was  soon  relieved  by  General  Johnston,  who  spent  the 
Winter  in  repairing  the  losses  of  the  last  campaign,  and 
preparing  for  the  next.  It  came  in  the  Spring  with  the 
advance  of  General  Sherman,  and  for  two  months  there 
was  a  battle,  large  or  small,  almost  every  day.  The  Une 
of  march  was  along  the  Western  and  Atlantic  Railroad, 
without  which  indeed  it  is  doubtful  if  the  campaign  could 
have  been  made  at  aU  :  for  the  mere  provisioning  of  the 
army  required  a  hundred  and  forty-five  car-loads  a  day ! 

As  I  passed  over  this  road,  of  course  I  was  in  the  route 
of  the  great  "  Mountain  Campaign,"  and  every  few  min- 
utes the  conductor  caUed  my  attention  to  some  historic 
spot.  Here  was  Resaca,  at  which  General  Harrison,  then  in 
command  of  an  Indiana  regiment,  is  said  to  have  distin- 
guished himself.  And  yonder  by  the  track  stood  an  old 
frame  building,  weather-beaten  and  ugly,  but  which  took 
on  a  strange  interest  as  I  heard  that  this  was  the  veritable 
"  Big  Shanty,"  which  gave  name  to  a  battle.  It  has  a  gaunt 
and  spectral  appearance  ;  but  it  once  shook  with  the  roar 


32  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN. 

of  artillery  that  thundered  through  the  valley,  and  its 
floors  were  covered  with  wounded  and  dying  men. 

But  the  most  picturesque  scene  of  battle  was  Kenesaw 
Mountain,  a  noble  height,  which,  overlooking  the  country 
round  for  many  miles,  formed  a  sort  of  Gibraltar  for  the 
Confederate  Army,  by  which  it  was  occupied  as  the  centre 
of  its  position,  with  batteries  on  its  very  summit  and  along 
its  sides,  while  the  right  and  left  wings  of  the  army  reached 
out  for  miles  on  either  side.  To  carry  such  a  position  re- 
quired both  generalship  and  courage  of  the  highest  order. 
Every  point  was  defended  with  the  utmost  obstinacy,  while 
the  assailants  charged  in  front  and  on  the  flank  day  by 
day,  meeting  with  terrible  losses,  but  continually  bringing 
up  new  forces,  and  pushing  forward  with  irresistible  power. 
When  at  last  Johnston  was  obliged  to  fall  back,  the  moun- 
tain was  immediately  occupied  by  the  Union  troops,  but 
with  no  such  advantage  as  before,  as  the  Confederates  did 
not  propose  to  attack  it.  It  answered  the  purpose,  how- 
ever, of  a  point  of  observation,  and  it  was  from  its  summit 
that,  later  in  the  campaign,  was  signalled  the  message  to  a 
post  in  the  rear  that  had  been  suddenly  attacked  by  the 
enemy,  "  Hold  the  fort,  for  I  am  coming,"  which  furnished 
the  motto  for  the  famous  hymn — a  result  quite  unexpected 
by  the  grim  old  soldier  who  sent  it.  He  is  said  not  to  be 
always  quite  "devotional"  in  his  habits  of  thought  or 
modes  of  speech,  and  must  have  been  surprised  that  his 
message  from  the  top  of  Kenesaw  Mountain  should  be 
caught  up  as  a  battle-cry  to  be  ussd  in  sioiritual  conflicts, 
and  to  be  heralded  far  and  wide,  over  land  and  sea. 

But  it  is  hardly  possible  to  count  all  the  fields  of  battle 
and  of  death  that  lie  between  Chattanooga  and  Atlanta. 
Every  valley  and  every  mountain  side  is  hallowed  by  sol- 
diers' graves,  which  lie  thicker  as  we  get  farther  South. 
Of  the  terrible  combats  that  raged  round  Atlanta,  I  saw 


ATLANTA.  33 

a  sad  memorial  the  next  day,  as  I  drove  out  two  or  three 
miles  to  a  solitary  place  in  the  woods,  where  a  heavy  can- 
non, set  upright,  stands  as  a  monument  to  the  gallant 
General  McPherson  on  the  very  spot  where  he  fell. 

It  was  a  little  after  dark  when  we  roUed  into  the  sta- 
tion, and  found  shelter  in  that  spacious  caravanserai^  the 
Kimball  House,  where  with  bath,  and  bed  the  fatigues  of 
travel  were  soon  forgotten. 

Atlanta  is  a  place  in  which  I  feel  very  much  at  home. 
Not  that  I  have  been  here  often,  only  two  or  three  times  ; 
but  we  have  a  representative  of  Atlanta  in  Stockbridge,  in 
the  person  of  Mr.  John  H.  Inman,  who  has  his  Summer 
home  on  our  hill-top.  There  I  have  become  acquainted 
with  his  relatives,  who  came  to  visit  him,  so  that  when  I 
come  here,  they  receive  me  almost  as  one  of  the  family — 
a  relation  in  which  I  am  very  glad  to  be  recognized.  This 
cordial  welcome,  with  perhaps  something  in  this  Southern 
climate,  soon  warms  even  my  cold  Northern  blood. 

Atlanta  has  another  attraction  for  me  in  Henry  W. 
Grady,  whom  I  place  alongside  of  another  Summer  neigh- 
bor of  mine  in  the  Berkshire  Hills,  JosejDh  H.  Choate,  as 
two  of  the  most  delightful  men  that  ever  charmed  an 
audience,  moving  them  at  will  to  laughter  or  to  tears. 
Mr.  Grady  is  not  a  man  you  would  make  a  hero  of  at  first 
sight.  He  has  not  the  tall  figure  of  Mr.  Choate  (he  is 
short  and  thick-set),  nor  the  keen  eye  that  looks  through 
and  through  an  ugly  witness,  and  by  a  kind  of  fascination 
draws  the  truth  out  of  him  in  spite  of  himself.  I  found 
him  in  his  den  (for  being  an  editor  myself,  I  know  what 
dens  they  inhabit)  amid  piles  of  newspaper  rubbish,  which 
have  such  an  ancient  look  that  they  might  be  mummy 
cloths  unwrapped  from  the  bodies  of  Egyptians  that  have 
been  dead  thousands  of  years.  He  was  sitting  in  one  of 
those  convenient  office   chairs,   which   are  mounted    on 


34  HENRY  W.  GRADY. 

springs,  so  that  the  sitter  can  turn  in  any  direction  (for  an 
editor  has  sometimes  to  shift  his  position  very  quickly), 
leaning  back,  with  his  feet  on  the  table  in  front,  and 
hugging  to  his  breast  a  pad  on  which  he  was  writing  a 
letter.  Thus  doubled  up,  he  dashes  off  letters  or  news- 
paper articles  right  and  left.  The  versatility  of  the  man 
amazes  me  ;  no  amount  of  work  disconcerts  him  ;  he  sees 
everybody,  talks  with  chance  visitors,  while  he  keeps  on 
writing  ;  and  then  can  jump  up  at  a  minute's  notice,  and 
go  to  any  sort  of  gathering,  and  make  a  speech  on  any 
subject!  He  has  in  him  the  elements  of  a  successful 
poHtician :  for  he  is  as  nimble  as  a  cat,  and  like  a  cat, 
always  falls  on  his  feet.  I  do  believe,  if  you  should  toss 
him  into  the  air  or  throw  him  out  of  the  fourth-story 
window,  he  would  light  on  the  ground  all  right,  and  be 
ready  to  start  off  on  the  instant  to  speak  at  any  pubHc 
gathering,  political  or  religious,  whether  it  were  to  address 
a  camp-meeting,  or  make  a  rousing  speech  at  a  Democratic 
Convention. 

Though  he  has  been  for  some  years  known  at  the  South, 
he  was  Httle  known  at  the  North  until  two  years  ago,  when 
he  appeared  at  the  New  England  dinner  in  New  York.  I 
was  at  that  time  abroad  ;  but  one  day  in  Palermo,  in  Sicily, 
a  lady  just  from  Naples  handed  me  an  American  paper 
which  contained  his  speech,  and  I  read  it,  not  once  but 
many  times,  and  each  time  with  a  new  appreciation  of  its 
wonderful  pathos  and  power.  That  speech  made  his 
reputation  at  the  North.  When  I  came  home  I  got  the 
pamphlet  that  contained  the  proceedings  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Society,  in  which  it  was  reported  in  full,  and  it  is 
often  read  in  my  family,  though  I  confess  to  a  little  spite 
against  it,  for  there  is  a  person  whom  I  cannot  bear  to  see 
shed  a  tear,  who,  .when  she  tries  to  read  it,  always  finds 
something  in  her  throat. 


ROUND  THE  HEARTHSTONE.  35 

Busy  as  he  was,  Mr.  Grady  must  needs  have  me  to 
dinner,  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  "  Barkis  was  willinV*  for,  like 
Mr.  Choate,  he  is  nowhere  so  delightful  as  in  his  own  home, 
where  all  preoccupation  is  gone,  and  he  can  give  himself  up 
to  his  friends.  Here  his  wit  and  humor  are  infinite.  Few 
men  can  tell  a  story  so  well.  To  hear  him  give  the  outlines 
of  a  recent  work  of  fiction,  as  he  did  of  "  The  Two  Little  Con- 
federates," was  next  to  reading  the  story.  Out  of  respect 
to  my  clerical  character,  he  invited  three  of  the  city  pastors 
to  meet  me,  a  Presbyterian,  a  Methodist,  and  a  Baptist,  of 
whom  I  can  only  say  that,  if  they  are  fair  representatives  of 
their  respective  denominations,  the  pulpit  of  Atlanta  will 
rank  with  the  pulpit  of  New  York. 

[The  above  was  written  some  months  ago— in  May,  1889— and  now 
as  these  pages  are  going  to  press,  it  is  with  inexpressible  pain  that  I 
have  to  add,  that  he  who  was  the  life  of  that  happy  home,  the  centre  of 
all  that  brightness,  has  gone  to  the  grave.  Mr.  Grady  was  of  a  compact 
frame,  capable  of  any  amount  of  labor  and  endurance.  Subject  to  no 
disease,  he  had  the  promise  of  a  long  life,  with  ever  growing  influence 
and  power.  But  late  in  the  Autumn  he  took  a  cold,  which,  though 
severe,  would  have  yielded  to  treatment,  if  he  could  have  remained 
under  his  own  roof.  But  he  was  continually  pressed  to  go  away,  to 
speak  on  public  occasions.  Yielding  to  this  importunity,  he  had  accepted 
an  invitation  to  address  the  Merchants  Club  of  Boston,  for  which  he 
had  prepared  himself,  and  as  the  time  approached,  though  unfit  to  leave 
home,  he  could  not  bear  to  disappoint  his  friends.  He  went  and  made 
a  speech  on  the  Race  Problem,  which  was  considered  by  those  who  heard 
both,  as  even  more  able,  if  not  more  eloquent,  than  that  at  the  New 
England  dinner.  But  it  was  at  his  peril  that  he  came  out  of  that  crowded 
and  heated  room  into  the  wintry  air.  The  exposure  was  increased  by 
an  excursion  to  Plymouth  Rock:  so  that  he  returned  to  New  York,  not 
better  but  worse.  But  still  those  about  him  were  not  alarmed:  and  as 
he  was  with  a  party  of  friends,  he  yielded  to  his  urgent  desire  to  return 
home.  At  Atlanta  a  crowd  was  waiting  for  him  to  cheer  him  for  his 
success  at  the  North,  but  he  was  too  weak  to  receive  their  congratula- 
tions, and  was  driven  directly  to  his  home,  where  all  that  medical  skill 
could  do,  with  the  fondest  love  and  care,  was  done  for  him,  but  without 
avail,  and  on  the  23d  of  December,  in  the  early  morning,  his  brave  heart 
ceased  to  beat.  So  passed  away,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight  years,  in  the 
very  prime  of  life,  the  most  brilliant  young  man  of  the  South.  One  of 
the  last  things  he  said,  was,  "  If  I  die,  I  die  serving  the  South,  the  land 
I  love  so  well.  My  father  died  fighting  for  it :  I  am  proud  to  die  speaking 
for  it,"  words  that  might  well  be  graven  on  his  tomb.l 


CHAPTEK  rV. 

FLORIDA — ST.  AUGUSTINE THE   PONCE  DE   LEON. 

It  was  a  long  night-ride  from  Atlanta  across  Georgia. 
The  State  is  imperial  in  extent,  and  like  a  good  many 
other  grand  things,  if  you  have  too  much  of  it,  becomes 
a  trifle  wearisome.  "Jordan  is  a  hard  road  to  travel," 
and  in  this  respect,  if  in  no  other,  Georgia  is  like  Jordan, 
as  indeed  any  other  State  would  be,  if  you  had  to 
travel  over  it  in  the  dark,  seeing  nothing,  and  with  every 
bone  in  your  body  in  pain  from  fatigue.  I  do  not  find 
much  poetry  in  travelling  at  night,  though  sometimes,  as  I 
listen  to  the  incessant  roUing  in  the  long  dark  watches,  I 
try  to  comfort  myself  with  the  inspiring  negro  melody, 
"  Roll,  Jordan,  roll !  "  and  to  imagine  that  these  ever-roll- 
ing wheels  and  fire-drawn  cars  are  the  mighty  chariots  of 
civiHzation.  But  all  this  poetry  and  philosophy  I  would 
give  for  a  good  sound  sleep.  The  real  necessity  for  these 
night- journeyings  is  that  the  days  are  not  long  enough, 
the  distances  are  so  great.  Thus  it  was  Georgia  when  we 
went  to  bed,  and  when  we  rose  it  was  Georgia  still,  and  it 
was  fuU  noon  before  we  crossed  the  border  into  Florida. 

At  last  we  are  in  the  Peninsula  State,  and  stop  at  Jack- 
sonville, which  but  a  few  months  ago  was  desolated  by  the 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  ^  3t 

yellow  fever.  But  of  this  not  a  trace  remains,  either  of  the 
fever  or  the  panic  it  inspired.  It  was  hard  to  realize,  as 
we  walked  along  the  quiet  streets,  that  this  was  the  place 
from  which,  even  so  late  as  the  Autumn,  the  inhabitants 
were  fleeing  in  terror.  Now  every  precaution  has  been 
taken  against  its  recurrence,  and  there  is  once  more  a 
feeling  of  perfect  security ;  an4  the  broad  and  beautiful 
river  that  sweeps  past  the  town  does  not  flow  more  tran- 
quilly than  the  lives  of  the  easy-going  population. 

A  couple  of  hours  more  brought  us  to  St.  Augustine. 
It  was  dark  when  we  arrived,  but  a  few  minutes  took  us 
from  the  station  into  such  a  centre  of  stately  halls  and 
blazing  lights  and  music  and  gay  society,  that  we  might 
have  been  in  the  very  heart  of  Paris. 

St.  Augustine  is  the  oldest  town  in  the  United  States, 
having  been  settled  by  the  Spaniards  in  1565,  forty-two  years 
before  Captain  John  Smith  landed  at  Jamestown,  fifty-five 
years  before  the  Pilgrims  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock,  and 
only  seventy-three  years  after  Columbus  first  saw  the 
shores  of  the  New  "World !  Hardily  was  it  settled  before 
it  was  fortified,  for  even  in  those  early  days  enemies  were 
abroad.  The  story  of  the  riches  of  Mexico  and  Peru  had 
filled  all  Europe,  and  the  ships  that  bore  the  treasure  to 
Spain  tempted  the  sea-rovers  of  all  nations,  and  the  Bucca- 
neers— another  name  for  pirates — kept  watch  along  this 
coast  for  the  gold  that  was  being  carried  across  the  sea 
to  fill  the  treasuries  of  the  successors  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella.  This  kind  of  robbery,  pleasantly  disguised  under" 
the  name  of  war,  was  continued  for  the  better  part  of  a 
century,  and  even  distinguished  English  navigators  did  not 
disdain  to  enrich  themselves  with  the  treasure  of  Spanish 
gaUeons.  Sir  Francis  Drake,  sailing  up  the  coast,  and 
descrying  across  the  low  sandy  shore  some  sign  of  human 
habitation,  landed  here  and  burnt  the  town,     This  disaster 


38  THE  OLD  FORT. 

compelled  the  Spaniards  to  still  greater  efforts  for  protec- 
tion, and  in  place  of  the  old  stockade  rose  a  formidable 
Fort,  which  remains  to  this  day,  the  best  specimen  this 
side  the  Atlantic  of  the  style  of  fortification  common  in 
Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  covers  perhaps  an  acre  of 
ground,  with  walls  of  stone  twelve  feet  thick,  intended  to 
mount  a  hundred  guns,  with  projecting  bastions,  and 
round  towers  at  each  comer  of  the  quadrangle,  from 
which  sentinels  kept  watch  over  land  and  sea,  the  whole 
surrounded  by  a  moat,  that  could  be  filled  with  water. 
Connected  with  this  was  a  canal  extending  across  the 
peninsula,  so  that  entrance  to  the  city  could  only  be 
through  massive  gates,  that  were  strongly  guarded.  The 
Fort,  when  fully  garrisoned,  would  hold  a  thousand  men. 
Thus  St.  Augustine  was  secure  against  any  attack  that  was 
likely  to  be  made  upon  it. 

Of  course  these  defences  would  not  be  of  much  use  in 
our  day.  A  ship  of  war,  or  even  a  gunboat,  carrying  the 
heavy  modern  ordnance,  would  knock  the  old  Fort  to 
pieces  in  half  an  hour.  No  attempt  is  made  to  keep  it  in 
condition.  The  guns  are  not  even  mounted,  but  lying  on 
the  grass,  or  in  the  moat,  with  pyramids  of  balls  beside 
them. 

The  interest  of  the  old  Fort  therefore  is  not  as  a  forti- 
fication, but  as  a  relic  of  the  past.  As  such,  it  has  indeed 
a  strange  and  curious  interest,  mingled  with  suggestions 
of  the  barbaric  warfare  of  those  old  times.  For  here  are 
not  only  embrasures  for  guns  and  casemates,  but  dungeons 
dark  as  the  tomb,  in  which  prisoners  were  confined.  Even 
the  chapel  has  a  melancholy  suggestion  in  the  side  rooms, 
where  the  condemned  sat  to  listen  to  mass  before  they 
were  led  to  execution.  In  one  of  the  dark  underground 
rooms  two  skeletons  were  found  suspended  to  the  wall, 
where  perhaps  the  living  had  been  hung  in  chains  till  they 


A  SPANISH  MASSACRE.  39 

should  expire.  Outside  the  Fort,  in  the  moat,  is  a  pro- 
jecting wall  riddled  with  balls,  which,  before  being  buried 
in  the  stone,  had  passed  through  the  quivering  bodies  of 
the  condemned  who  were  "  stood  up  "  against  this  waU 
to  receive  the  fatal  shot. 

These  surroundings  affected  me  as  did  the  old  quarters 
of  the  Inquisition  in  Seville.  Of  course  those  who  perish- 
ed here  may  have  been  murderers  and  deserved  their  fate. 
But  they  may  have  been  helpless  Indians,  or  merely 
Huguenot  emigrants  who  landed  on  this  inhospitable 
coast.  There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  Spanish  perse- 
cutions or  massacres  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean,  more, 
cold-blooded  and  cruel  than  the  massacre  of  some  hun- 
dreds of  French  Huguenots,  who,  fleeing  from  persecution 
at  home,  sought  a  refuge  in  Florida.  Shipwrecked  a  few 
miles  south  of  St.  Augustine,  they  were  overpowered  by 
the  garrison,  and  were  deHberately  led  out  and  butchered, 
their  caj)tors  teUing  them,  with  the  exultation  of  fiends, 
that  it  was  not  because  they  were  Frenchmen,  but  because 
they  were  heretics!  That  was  the  freedom  to  worship 
God  which  the  exiles  found  on  the  shores  of  the  New 
"World  I  It  was  a  terrible  crime,  and  brought  a  terrible 
retribution :  for  years  after,  a  Frenchman,  filled  with  in- 
dignation at  the  horrible  atrocity,  fitted  out  an  expedition, 
which  safely  crossed  the  sea,  and  landed  a  few  miles  above 
St.  Augustine  ;  and  coming  suddenly  upon  a  detached  post, 
captured  the  garrison,  who  were  made  to  pay  for  the  cru- 
elties of  their  leaders  a  few  years  before.  The  sentence 
was  dehberate,  and  they  understood  it  well.  As  they  were 
marched  to  execution,  it  was  announced  to  them  that  they 
suffered  death,  not  because  they  were  Spaniards,  nor  yet 
because  they  were  Catholics,  but  because  they  were  robbers 
and  murderers ! 

Bemembering  aU  these  things,  and  what  cruelties  had 


40  THE  QUAINT  OLD  TOAVN. 

been  perpetrated  by  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  and  Peru, 
I  could  but  think  it  not  at  all  improbable  that  the  deadly 
shots  fired  in  this  ditch  of  the  old  Foi*t  at  St.  Augustine, 
may  have  struck  down  the  innocent  as  often  as  the  guilty. 

These  are  dark  shadows  on  the  tropical  beauty  and 
loveliness  around,  though  partly  hidden  in  the  far-off  twi- 
light of  three  centuries  ago.  It  makes  one  shiver  even 
now  to  think  such  deeds  were  ever  possible  in  this  New 
World.  But  again  there  comes  a  reaction,  and  this  Span- 
ish massacre  is  a  landmark  from  which  we  can  measure 
the  progress  made  since  that  bloody  time,  and  thank  God 
that  such  crimes  can  no  more  be  committed  in  His  name ! 

And  now  the  old  Fort  is  only  a  picturesque  ruin ;  and 
very  picturesque  it  is  to  me,  as  I  walk  along  the  sea-waU 
at  sunset,  just  as  the  evening  gun  fi'om  the  barracks  in 
another  part  of  the  town  signals  the  close  of  day,  and 
look  up  to  the  little  round  towers,  out  of  which  the  Span- 
ish sentinels  looked,  to  keep  watch  for  the  terrible  Eng- 
lish rovers  who  were  sweeping  the  seas ! 

St.  Augustine  is  a  thoroughly  Spanish  town,  so  that 
now  and  then,  as  I  wander  about  its  narrow  streets,  I  feel 
as  if  I  had  gone  astray,  and  were  back  again  in  some  out- 
of-the-way  place  of  Old  Castile.  The  original  settlers  were 
largely  from  the  island  of  Minorca,  and  my  friend,  Dr. 
Anderson,  who  last  year  made  a  visit  to  Spain,  crossed 
over  to  Port  Mahon,  where,  from  the  names  on  the  shops 
in  the  streets,  he  seemed  to  be  among  his  neighbors  in 
St.  Augustine.  These  associations  give  a  singular  charm 
to  this  quaint  old  town,  which  is  full  of  nooks  and  corners, 
about  which  those  who  are  beginning  to  be  in  "  the  sere 
and  yellow  leaf "  (shall  I  count  myself  among  them  ?)  can 
wander  all  day  long,  and  dream  dreams  and  see  visions. 

But  after  all  is  said  and  done — after  we  have  walked 
round  and  round  as  many  times  as  the  pilgrims  to  Mecca 


WRY  WE  COME  TO  FLORIDA.  41 

walk  round  the  holy  Kaaba,  in  which  is  the  black  stone 
that  fell  down  from  heaven — what  remains  ?  I  have 
been  about  the  world  a  good  deal  within  the  last  fifteen 
years,  and  my  rule  has  been  to  see  everything  as  rapidly 
and  as  thoroughly  as  possible,  and  then  "move  on."  And 
now,  after  seeing  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  what  is  there 
that  should  detain  me,  or  detain  any  man,  very  long  in 
St.  Augustine,  or  in  Florida  ?  I  confess  there  is  not  a 
great  deal,  if  we  come  merely  to  see  sights.  The  country 
is  not  picturesque  ;  no  mountains  rear  their  summits  to 
the  sky ;  nor  has  it  even  the  full  beauty  of  the  sea,  for 
though  almost  surrounded  by  it,  its  long  shore-Hne  lies 
too  near  the  level  of  the  water.  As  you  sail  past  it,  you 
see  no  Dover  cliffs,  which  look  down  into  "the  confined 
deep  ";  you  miss  the  rugged  grandeur  of  a  wild  and  stormy 
coast ;  in  fact,  there  is  hardly  coast  enough  for  the  waves 
to  dash  against,  so  that  the  mighty  ocean,  unless  stirred  by 
a  tempest,  lies  as  flat  and  tame  as  the  land  beside  it.  In- 
deed it  is  not  long  ago  that  the  mainland  was  the  sea-bed, 
with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  flowing  over  it ;  and  it  still  has  a 
drowned  appearance,  as  if  it  could  hardly  keep  its  head 
out  Oi  water. 

If  you  turn  back  into  the  interior,  the  country  has  a 
dreary  monotony.  For  a  hundred  leagues  you  ride  through 
an  endless  succession  of  pine  barrens,  and  as  you  look  list- 
lessly through  your  car  window,  you  ask,  "  Why  do  our 
Northern  people  come  to  Florida?"  And  yet  for  thou- 
sands of  them  this  desolate  country  has  a  strange  fascina- 
tion.    "What  can  it  be  ? 

It  is  all  expressed  in  one  word — climate.  Though  the 
land  be  flat,  the  sky  is  blue,  and  bends  over  the  earth  with 
a  warm  and  loving  embrace,  and  the  soft  and  balmy  air 
seems  to  have  dropped  down  from  heaven  itself,  as  if  it 
were  the  very  atmosphere  that  angels  breathe. 


42         THE  CLIMATE  THAT  OF  EGYPT. 

Such  a  climate  I  have  found  indeed  elsewhere,  but  far 
from  home.  If  one  could  choose  absolute  perfection,  I 
should  say  that  the  perfect  Winter  climate  of  the  world  is 
that  of  Egypt,  where  there  are  no  swamps  and  no  jungle, 
but  every  particle  of  miasma  is  absorbed  by  the  hot  air 
of  the  surrounding  deserts.  I  speak  from  my  own  ob- 
servation, as  I  have  been  twice  in  Egypt,  and  some  years 
since  spent  several  weeks  on  the  Nile,  where  I  seemed  to  be 
floating  in  Paradise.  But  that  is  very  far  away  :  I  suppose  a 
man  who  should  take  the  fastest  steamer,  and  rush  through 
England  and  across  France  and  Italy  day  and  night,  and 
catch  the  steamer  from  Brindisi  for  Alexandria,  might 
reach  Egypt  in  fifteen  days  ;  but  he  can  reach  Florida  in 
thirty  hours,  without  the  fatigue  and  discomfort  of  a  sea 
voyage,  and  all  this  wear  and  tear  of  his  mortal  frame. 
And  when  he  gets  here,  he  has  found,  not  Egypt  indeed, 
but  a  country  that  holds  about  the  same  place  on  the 
earth's  surface.  Florida  is  in  the  same  latitude,  and  has 
very  much  the  same  climate.  To  be  specific,  the  Great 
Pyramid  stands  exactly  on  the  30th  parallel.  St.  Augus- 
tine differs  from  it  by  less  than  one-quarter  of  a  degree, 
its  latitude  being  29  degrees,  48  minutes,  and  30  seconds ! 
Owing  to  the  deserts,  the  climate  of  Egypt  is  drier  ;  while 
the  Gulf  Stream,  flowing  near  to  the  Florida  coast,  makes 
its  atmosphere  moist  as  well  as  warm. 

Many  who  come  to  Florida  feel  as  if,  for  the  first  time 
in  their  Hves,  they  knew  what  it  was  to  breathe.  When  I 
was  in  Madrid,  I  observed  that  the  Spaniards  always  went 
about  wrapped  in  cloaks,  the  right  skirt  of  which  they 
tossed  over  the  left  shoulder  in  a  way  to  cover  the  mouth, 
the  reason  of  which  is  given  in  the  Spanish  proverb,  that ' 
the  air  of  Madrid,  "  while  it  might  not  blow  out  a  candle, 
could  put  out  a  life."  In  our  Northern  cities  many  have 
to  take  similar  precautions,  going  about  muffled  up  to  the 


THE  ATMOSPHERE.  43 

chin,  and  even  covering  their  faces,  lest  they  should  inhale 
the  keen  and  frosty  air. 

Such  chronic  invalids,  who  have  been  aU  their  lives 
taking  care  of  their  health,  come  to  Florida  and  find  that 
it  takes  care  of  itself.  The  consumptive  and  the  asthmatic 
throw  off  their  wrappings,  and  have  a  new  sense  of  free- 
dom, since  they  are  not  afraid  of  nature's  best  medicine, 
the  pure  air  of  heaven.  They  do  not  have  to  '*  catch  their 
breath  "  ;  to  gasp  for  it  ;  but  take  a  long,  deep  inhalation, 
which  causes  their  lungs  to  expand  as  never  before.  Such 
breathing  is  a  luxury  that  makes  life  worth  living.  I  find 
the  atmosphere  so  exhilarating,  that  I  can  never  get 
enough  of  it.  When  I  am  walking  along  the  bay,  or  riding 
through  the  woods,  in  some  lonely  spot  where  I  shall  not 
be  observed,  I  "  open  my  mouth  wide,"  according  to  the 
Bible  direction,  to  drink  in  the  heavenly  air. 

But  to  get  the  benefit  of  all  this,  one  must  have  a  habi- 
tation. "When  I  was  on  the  desert,  on  the  way  to  Mount 
Sinai,  I  Hved  in  tents,  Uke  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  ;  but 
you  can  hardly  live  in  a  tent  in  Florida.  Even  in  the  pine 
woods  you  must  have  a  roof  over  your  head,  if  it  be  only  a 
log  cabin.  The  old-fashioned  Southern  houses  were  roomy 
and  comfortable,  and  their  long  and  wide  verandas  fur- 
nished a  cool  retreat  in  the  heat  of  the  day.  In  still  hotter 
climates,  as  in  India,  this  is  the  chief  thing  to  be  regarded. 
In  the  Indian  bungalow,  it  may  almost  be  said  that  the 
main  idea  is  to  have  a  veranda  with  a  house  thrown  in,  the 
domestic  arrangements  and  the  sleeping  apartments  being 
mere  attachments  to  the  great  lounging  place,  where  men 
sit  aU  day  long,  and  far  into  the  night,  smoking  and  talk- 
ing, and  where  the  real  life  of  the  people  goes  on. 

The  first  hotels  in  the  South  were  merely  enlargements 
of  the  old  houses  on  the  plantations.  Some  of  those  in 
St  Augustine  were  modelled  on  this  plan,  and  answered 


44  HOTEL  ARCHITECTURE. 

the  purpose  of  the  travelling  public  very  well,  until  they 
were  succeeded  by  one  so  unique  and  so  magnificent,  as 
to  deserve  a  detailed  description. 

Connoisseurs  of  fine  architecture  are  not  apt  to  look 
for  models  in  hotels,  but  in  churches  and  cathedrals  ;  in 
palaces  and  stately  mansions.  The  city  of  New  York 
abounds  in  hotels,  but  it  has  not  one  that  is  worth  looking 
at  for  its  architecture.  "  The  Windsor,"  if  it  stood  out  in 
the  country,  beside  a  stream  of  water,  would  be  taken  for 
a  paper  mill  or  a  cotton  factory.  Or  it  might  be  some 
public  institution,  whose  needs  required  that  which  was 
useful  rather  than  ornamental ;  as  its  stories  are  all  just 
alike,  with  just  so  many  windows,  of  just  the  same  size,  as 
if  they  opened  into  the  small  rooms  intended  for  the  wards 
of  an  asylum.  There  is  some  excuse  for  this  in  a  crowded 
city,  where  the  largest  buildings  must  be  put  on  a  line 
with  the  street,  to  utilize  every  foot  of  space,  for  there  is 
not  room  to  have  a  great  central  court.  This  must  be 
reserved  for  a  situation  less  crowded,  where  there  is  more 
elbow-room.  It  is  also  more  suited  to  a  climate  warmer 
than  that  of  the  North — conditions  which  seem  to  meet  in 
this  old  Spanish  town  of  St.  Augustine.  And  so  it  came 
to  pass  quite  naturally  that  a  gentleman  of  New  York,  who 
had  been  here  often  enough  to  appreciate  the  place,  and 
see  its  possibilities,  should  have  a  mind  to  build  a  Hotel 
after  his  own  fancy,  that  should  meet  all  requirements, 
and  be  a  welcome  retreat  for  those  who,  fleeing  from  the 
severe  Winters  of  the  North,  should  seek  a  place  of  health 
and  of  rest.  He  saw  that  the  Spanish  style  of  architecture 
was  best  adapted  to  a  warm  climate  :  and  having  the  good 
fortune  to  engage  an  architect  who  entered  with  spirit 
into  the  design,  despatched  him  to  Spain,  to  study  the 
best  specimens  of  Spanish  architecture  in  Toledo,  Cordova, 
Seville,  and  Granada.      The  result  has  been  a  structure 


THE  PONCE  DE  LEON.  45 

quite  unique  in  this  country,  and  the  like  of  which  I  have 
not  seen  anywhere. 

Having  ample  space,  there  was  no  need  to  crowd  any- 
thing ;  so  that  the  building,  instead  of  being  one  huge 
mass,  could  be  thrown  into  pavilions,  grouped  round  a 
great  court,  with  its  fountain  and  flowers  ;  with  projecting 
balconies  (which,  if  not  crowded  with  Spanish  senoritas, 
are  none  the  less  charming  with  American  ladies);  and 
belfry-like  towers,  rising  at  the  angles,  with  open  arches, 
from  which  one  can  overlook  the  town,  and  look  far  out  to 
sea  ;  and  that  are  hung  at  night  with  many-colored  lights, 
which  shed  their  varied  rays  upon  the  enchanted  scene. 

Such  is  the  general  plan.  But  of  course,  in  a  building 
of  such  extent,  there  is  no  end  of  details,  which  have  to 
be  worked  out  with  the  utmost  care.  Now  I  do  not  pro- 
fess to  know  much  about  architecture  ;  but,  like  a  good 
many  others,  I  know  just  enough  to  find  fault.  Without 
technical  knowledge,  I  have  an  instinct  of  proportion 
and  of  harmony,  which  detects  what  is  not  in  accord 
with  them,  even  when  it  may  be  difficult  to  point  out  just 
where  the  fault  lies.  If  I  go  into  a  new  church,  and  it  be 
too  long  for  its  width,  or  the  ceiling  be  too  high  or  too 
low,  I  "  feel  it  in  my  bones."  So  in  the  decoration  of  a 
room,  or  the  furnishing  of  it,  if  there  be  a  want  of  har- 
mony of  color,  my  flesh  begins  to  cre&p  before  I  can  tell  pre- 
cisely what  is  the  matter.  In  this  way  I  have  gone  about 
the  Ponce  de  Leon,  not  with  a  measuring  line  in  my  hand, 
but  trusting  solely  to  my  eye,  and  I  have  not  been  able  to 
detect  a  single  fault.  "  The  height  and  the  length  and  the 
breadth  of  it,"  are  not  "equal,"  but  they  are  in  perfect 
proportion.  As  an  editor,  true  to  his  calling,  I  have  been 
a  Httle  disappointed  that  I  could  not  find  something  to 
criticize  ;  but  I  give  it  up.  Nor  have  I  found  any  glaring 
color  which  offends  my  taste.     On  the  walls  and  ceilings 


46  THE  PONCE  DE  LEON. 

and  even  in  the  furnishing,  in  carpets  and  curtains  and 
upholstery,  everything  is  subdued  to  that  soft  and  quiet 
tone  which  is  most  pleasing  and  grateful  to  the  eye. 

Nor  is  there  in  the  whole  structure  a  single  piece  of 
cheap  worhi  where  unsound  places  are  covered  up  with  lath 
and  plaster.  This  is  a  great  deal  to  say  in  these  days 
(when  huge  buildings  tumble  down  with  their  own  weight, 
and  others  show  cracks  in  the  walls),  that  here  is  a  struc- 
ture of  immense  size  and  cost,  every  cubic  foot  of  which 
is  solid  from  the  foundation  to  the  capstone. 

The  erection  of  such  a  building  is  not  only  a  notable 
event  in  the  way  of  art,  but  reflects  the  greatest  credit 
upon  those  who  designed  it,  and  the  powerful  friend  who 
stood  behind  them,  and  furnished  the  munitions  of  war. 
It  shows  genius  as  well  as  skiU  in  the  young  architects  who 
wrought  upon  it  for  three  years,  and  who  by  this  work 
alone  must  take  rank  with  the  most  promising  of  the 
architects  of  our  country.  I  am  proud  to  say  that  one  of 
them  is  the  son  of  my  friend  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Hastings,  President  of  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary  of  New  York. 

But  with  aU  their  genius,  they  could  have  produced  no- 
thing so  perfect  if  they  had  been  hampered  or  restricted  by 
the  desire  for  economy  on  the  part  of  the  owner.  There  are 
many  who  begin  with  great  designs,  but,  like  the  man  in 
the  Gospel,  "  are  not  able  to  finish,"  or  they  get  frightened 
at  the  magnitude  of  their  own  undertakings,  and  suddenly 
begin  to  take  in  sail,  to  cut  down  the  estimates,  and  to 
cheapen  everything.  If  he  who  undertook  to  build  the 
Ponce  de  Leon  had  been  of  that  temper,  it  would  have 
soon  come  to  grief,  for  when  money  is  going  out  at  a  fear- 
ful rate,  most  men  who  have  put  their  hand  to  the  plough 
not  only  "look  hack"  but  look  very  black  also.  Not  so  with 
its  projector.     On  the  contrary,  I  hear  that  during  the 


THE  MAN  WHO   "ONLY  SIGNED  THR  CHECKS.'^  41 

progress  of  the  work,  if  he  ever  made  a  criticism,  it  was  to 
express  a  fear  that  this  or  that  was  not  good  enough,  or 
rich  enough,  or  handsome  enough.  Instead  of  holding  in 
the  architects,  he  gave  them  free  rein,  and  spurred  them 
on  to  do  their  very  best. 

And  who  is  he  that  has  stood  behind  this  great  under- 
taking from  the  first,  never  flinching  even  when  the  cost 
mounted  up  into  the  milhons?  It  is  a  gentleman  who 
writes  a  part  of  his  name  as  I  write  mine  (though  unfortu- 
nately I  cannot  complete  the  signature),  Mr.  Henry  M. 
Flagler  of  New  York,  who,  having  conceived  the  project, 
had  the  nerve  to  carry  it  through ;  and  who,  instead  of 
taking  the  honot  to  himself,  rates  his  part  very  lightly, 
giving  all  the  credit  to  the  architects,  saying  modestly  that 
he  "  only  signed  the  checks !  "  This  was  a  mere  trifle. 
Only  somehow  we  find  that,  however  elaborate  may  be  the 
design,  and  however  vast  the  preparations,  but  for  this 
little  matter  of  "  signing  the  checks,"  the  wheels  will  not 
move.  But  indeed  in  this  statement  he  does  not  do  justice 
to  himself.  For  if  he  did  not  draw  the  plans,  he  had  the 
taste  to  know  a  good  thing  when  he  saw  it,  and,  having 
faith  in  his  architects,  to  give  them  carte  blanche  to  carry  out 
the  magnificent  design.  Out  of  this  combination  of  means, 
genius,  and  will,  came  the  structure  which  fitly  beai's  the 
name  of  the  old  Spanish  navigator  who  first  set  foot  upon 
these  shores. 

But  a  single  building  is  by  no  means  the  limit  of  this 
benefaction.  The  Ponce  de  Leon  has  two  large  annexes, 
in  two  massive  piles,  with  Spanish  names — the  Cordova 
and  the  Alcazar.  In  the  rear  of  the  latter  rises  a  dome 
which  might  be  the  roof  of  a  mosque,  and  which  has 
under  it  what  may  be  found  in  the  outer  courts  of  St. 
Sophia,  and  of  all  the  great  mosques  of  the  Moslem  world, 
viz:   plentiful  means  of  ablution,  for  here  is  arranged  a 


48  A  POOL  OF  BETHESDA. 

system  of  Baths  the  most  complete  that  I  have  seen  any- 
where on  this  side  the  Atlantic  or  the  other.  The  Russian 
baths  are  as  complete  as  the  most  luxurious  in  St.  Peters- 
bui'g,  and  the  Turkish  equal  to  any  in  Constantinople. 
In  both  of  them  the  stranger  will  find  stalwart  creatures, 
speaking  a  foreign  tongue,  but  who  seem  to  understand 
their  business ;  who  will  take  him  in  hand,  and  steam  him 
till  it  seems  as  if  every  drop  of  perspiration  were  oozing 
from  his  body,  and  plunge  him  into  the  depths,  and  bring 
him  up  again  (still  alive  !),  and  "  douche  "  him,  and  at  last, 
after  he  has  been  a  long  time,  as  it  seems,  in  the  hands  of 
the  tormentors,  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  bring  him  to 
gently,  and  rub  him  with  soft  warm  towels,  till  there  comes 
over  him  a  delicious  feeling,  as  if  he  were,  though  stUl  in 
the  body,  a  being  of  another  sphere,  purified  and  glorified, 
freed  from  the  stains  of  sin,  and  indeed  rather  too  good 
for  this  world.  If  after  this  there  should  reappear  a  trace 
of  original  sin,  it  may  be  necessary,  on  the  second  or  third 
day,  to  repeat  the  ablution ! 

But  the  great  feature  of  the  Baths  is  a  Pool,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  long,  continually  supplied  with  water  from 
an  artesian  well,  which  is  the  largest  in  the  world.  As  this 
is  tinctured  with  sulphur,  the  stream  is  carried  over  the 
roof  of  an  adjoining  building,  where  it  is  exposed  to  the 
air,  and  is  so  thoroughly  aerated  that  it  is  as  fresh  and 
pure  as  if  it  were  from  a  mountain  spring.  This  supply 
of  water  from  above  instead  of  below,  has  a  pretty  effect, 
as  it  falls  into  the  Pool  in  a  cascade,  which  keeps  it  always 
stirring,  as  if  the  angel  of  healing  were  descending  into 
the  waters.  In  this  ample  si)ace  swimmers  at  all  hours 
are  plunging  and  splashing,  while  the  band  discourses 
inspiring  music,  and  the  galleries  are  crowded  with  spec- 
tators looking  down  upon  the  animated  scene. 

Here  is  health  united  with  pleasure — a  combination 


A  BUILDER  OF  CHURCHES.  49 

whicli  ought  to  make  us  forever  grateful  to  liim  who  has 
furnished  both.  The  Koran  pronounces  a  blessing  upon  the 
man  who  opens  a  fountain  in  the  desert,  or  plants  a  tree 
that  the  pilgrim  may  rest  under  its  shade  !  What  bless- 
ing ought  to  be  his  who  has  opened  a  Pool  of  Bethesda, 
that  wiU  continue  to  flow  long  after  he  is  gone,  to  be  for 
the  comfort  and  the  healing  of  many  generations ! 

But  Mr.  Flagler's  efforts  for  the  public  good  are  not 
confined  to  the  physical  purification  of  his  fellow-crea- 
tures. He  has  built  two  churches.  The  Methodist  came 
first,  as  they  are  pioneers  in  almost  everything ;  and  now 
he  has  built  us  Presbyterians  such  a  "  cathedral ''  that  we 
are  persuaded  that  we  have  the  apostolic  succession,  and 
are  the  true,  if  not  the  only  true,  Church.  A  man  who  has 
supphed  such  physical  and  spiritual  purification,  has  cer- 
tainly done  his  part  both  for  "  cleanliness  and  godliness." 

And  now  is  it  not  time  for  him  to  stop  ?  After  these 
years  of  labor,  the  work  he  has  undertaken  for  St.  Augus- 
tine must  be  nearing  completion,  so  that  it  can  aU,  to  use 
a  common  phrase,  be  "  fenced  in  and  painted."  "  Done  ?  " 
It  wiU  never  be  done  as  long  as  he  lives.  Indeed  it  is  aU 
the  time  extending ;  even  now  he  is  opening  new  avenues, 
paving  new  streets,  building  a  railway  station  here,  and 
an  iron  bridge  across  the  St.  John's  at  Jacksonville,  just 
to  keep  his  hand  in  ;  so  that  if  he  lives  ten  years  longer, 
(as  he  ought,  for  he  is  only  in  his  sixtieth  year,)  he  will  be 
recognized,  not  only  as  the  constructor  of  a  beautiful  build- 
ing, but  as  the  founder  of  a  city. 

Of  course  this  marvellous  creation,  that  has  sprung  up 
in  Florida,  Hke  Tadmor  in  the  wilderness,  is  the  wonder  of 
everybody  who  comes  here,  and  it  is  amusing  to  observe 
the  look  of  surprise  of  new  comers,  and  hear  their  expres- 
sions of  astonishment.  And  yet  the  American  feeling  wiU 
crop  out,  and  after  they  have  exhausted  their  admiration. 


50  ''does  it  pay?'' 

one  is  sure  to  hear  the  subdued  question,  ''Does  it  pay  f  " 
as  if  nothing  great  could  ever  be  done  except  as  a  specu- 
lation ;  and  there  are  many  mysterious  inqumes  as  to 
what  could  be  the  motive  of  this  lavish  expenditure  so  far 
away  from  the  commercial  centres  of  the  country.  There 
is  no  mystery  about  the  matter.  A  man  who  has  for  many 
years  made  his  annual  visits  to  this  portion  of  the  South, 
till  it  has  become  as  attractive  to  him  as  it  was  to  Ponce  de 
Leon,  (when,  enraptured  by  its  perpetual  bloom,  he  named 
it  Florida,  the  Land  of  Flowers,)  takes  it  into  his  mind  to 
create  a  paradise  of  beauty  somewhat  in  keeping  with  the 
gorgeous  tropical  vegetation.  Fond  of  grand  architecture, 
and  having  the  means  to  gratify  his  taste,  he  conceives  the 
idea  of  a  building  unique  in  its  structure  and  in  its  sur- 
roundings, which  shall  be  "  a  thing  of  beauty  "  and  "  a  joy 
forever."  Whether  it  will  pay  in  the  common  sense,  does 
not  enter  into  his  calculations,  any  more  than  it  does  into 
the  mind  of  one  who  gives  himself  a  costly  library  or 
gallery  of  paintings.  He  does  it,  as  an  artist  paints  a 
picture,  for  the  pleasure  of  doing  it.  Is  there  anything 
more  natural  or  more  reasonable  than  this  ?  It  is  indeed 
something  to  be  proud  of,  in  this  commonplace  and  prosaic 
age,  that  there  should  be  one  man  bold  enough  to  form  a 
design,  and  to  carry  it  out  without  flinching,  which  is  sim- 
ply to  put  into  stone  "  a  beautiful  dream." 

Whether  it  may  not  in  the  end  pay  even  pecuniarily,  is 
a  question.  When  St.  Augustine  becomes,  as  we  believe  it 
will,  the  great  Winter  resort  of  the  United  States,  and  a 
city  grows  up  around  these  marvellous  buildings,  standing 
in  the  midst  of  open  squares,  as  a  centre,  it  is  not  at  all 
improbable  that  the  money  "  sunk  "  so  many  years  before, 
may  yield  a  full  and  even  ample  return.  But  whether  it 
does  or  not,  is  a  matter  which  does  not  disturb  their 
builder  at  all.     If  it  does  not  pay  in  money,  it  pays  in 


REST  WITH   OCCUPATION.  51  ( 

another  and  better  way  ;  and  we  can  assure  any  anxious 
inquirer  that  the  creator  of  all  this  luxury  gets  a  return 
every  day  in  the  sight  of  the  pleasure  that  it  gives. 

The  best  of  it  all  is  that  his  beautiful  creation  is  for  the 
public  good.  Palaces  abroad  are  for  kings  and  princes. 
This  American  palace  is  open  to  all — a  place  of  rest  and 
health,  as  well  as  of  luxury  and«  enjoyment :  and  he  who 
has  placed  it  within  reach  of  his  countrymen,  is  a  public 
benefactor. 

In  this  delightful  retreat  I  settled  down  for  a  Winter 
vacation.  Some  may  think  ifc  a  strange  place  to  seek  for 
quiet,  in  the  midst  of  so  much  gayety.  But  the  Ponce  de 
Leon  is  a  perfect  Liberty  Hall.  Every  man  does  what  is 
right  in  his  own  eyes.  He  can  have  as  much  of  society, 
or  as  little,  as  he  pleases.  As  it  was  not  for  this  that  I 
came,  I  did  not  seek  it,  though  entertained  by  the  sight 
of  what  passed  before  my  eyes.  But  to  me  the  charm 
of  the  place  was  its  perfect  rest,  the  sweet  oblivion  of 
care.  Not  that  I  was  idle.  I  could  not  stand  that.  I 
do  not  find  rest  in  idleness  and  vacancy,  but  in  change  of 
scene  and  of  occupation.  A  portion  of  every  day  I  spent 
in  writing  ;  but  it  was  very  different  from  writing  in  an 
office  in  New  York.  Here  my  desk  was  at  an  open  win- 
dow, through  which  came,  not  only  the  soft  and  balmy 
air,  but  the  music  of  the  band  playing  in  the  court  below. 
This  did  not  disturb  me,  but  rather  gave  an  inspiration 
to  my  thoughts.  With  such  an  accompaniment,  I  found  a 
pleasure  in  keeping  up  communication  with  the  world.  If 
after  four  or  five  hours  I  felt  a  little  weary,  I  started  out 
on  a  tramp  ;  or  a  ride  through  the  woods,  or  a  sail  on  the 
water,  made  a  pleasant  close  to  the  happy  day. 

But  the  place  was  not  without  its  excitements,  though 
these  were  of  such  a  mild  character  as  not  to  be  dangerous. 
Strangers  were  constantly  coming  and  going,  so  that  the 


52  OLD  FRIENDS  AND  NEW  FRIENDS. 

Eotunda  of  tlie  Ponce  de  Leon  was  a  kind  of  Exchange, 
where  you  met  people  from  every  city  of  the  North,  find- 
ing old  acquaintances  and  making  new  ones.  Among  the 
habitues  were  some  who  had  been  in  different  parts  of  the 
world,  with  whom  an  old  traveller  like  myself  could  have 
many  a  pleasant  hour;  while  young  men  and  maidens 
stroUed  in  the  grounds  in  the  moonlight,  or  took  their 
pleasure  in  the  ways  they  most  delight  in. 

In  this  company,  which  embraced  first  and  last  a  good 
many  notable  people,  I  was  most  attracted  to  the  creator 
of  all  this  beauty  and  luxury,  of  whom  I  am  restrained 
from  saying  all  that  is  in  my  heart  lest  I  should  offend  his 
modesty,  for  he  is  one  of  the  most  unassuming  of  men. 
Seldom  is  so  much  strength  united  with  so  much  sweet- 
ness. A  man  who  can  do  a  kindness  with  such  delicacy 
that  he  makes  you  feel  as  if  you  were  conferring  a  favor 
upon  him  in  accepting  it,  is  a  master  in  the  fine  art  of 
courtesy.  Nor  was  it  to  me  only.  So  far  as  I  could  see, 
he  was  the  same,  though  in  a  more  general  way,  to  every 
one.  For  weeks  we  were  constantly  together,  always 
sitting  at  the  same  table,  and  in  all  that  time  I  never  saw 
him  in  the  least  excited  ;  never  heard  him  speak  a  work  of 
impatience  to  anybody  or  of  anybody.  I  felt  this  daily 
association  to  be  a  pleasure  constantly  renewed,  and  I 
count  it  the  chief  satisfaction  of  my  visit  to  St.  Augustine, 
that  it  gave  me  the  opportunity  of  knowing  somewhat 
intimately  one  whom  I  am  proud  to  call  my  friend. 


CHAPTEK  V. 
SOUTH  FI.ORIDA JUPITER  INLET. 

"You  don't  know  Jupiter  Inlet?"  Neither  did  I  a 
week  ago  :  for  aught  I  knew,  it  might  be  some  newly 
discovered  point  in  the  planet  Jupiter  ;  but  now  that  I  do 
know  it,  how  can  I  help  being  lifted  up  with  the  vanity  of 
superior  knowledge,  and  looking  down  upon  those  who  do 
not  know  it,  as  showing  ignorance  of  American  geography? 
Perhaps  you  will  think  a  place  not  worth  knowing  where 
(aside  from  the  Light-house,  the  Signal  Station,  and  the 
Life-Saving  Station)  there  is  but  one  house,  and  travellers 
have  to  find  lodging  in  an  old  steamboat  that  is  moored 
to  the  wharf !  But  I  will  not  raise  the  curtain  too  soon. 
First  of  all,  where  is  it  ? 

If  you  will  take  a  map  and  run  your  eye  down  the 
Atlantic  Coast,  you  will  find  its  lower  portion  protected  by 
an  almost  continuous  reef,  broken  here  and  there  into  long 
and  low-lying  islands,  which  form  a  natural  breakwater 
against  the  ocean.  Between  this  and  the  mainland  is  a 
succession  of  lagunes,  which,  with  trifling  interruptions, 
furnish  a  complete  inland  navigation  for  hundreds  of  miles. 
At  long  distances  there  are  openings  or  "  Inlets  "  in  this 
ocean  barrier,  through  which  light  boats,  and  in  some 


54  NEW  SETTLEMENTS  IN  THE  PINE  WOODS. 

cases  large  ships,  can  pass,  if  they  see  a  storm  approach- 
ing, and  take  refuge  in  these  sheltered  waters.  One  of 
these  "Inlets"  far  down  on  the  coast,  bears  the  mighty 
name  of  "  Jupiter."  To  this  distant  point  two  gentlemen 
connected  with  one  of  the  great  raib-oad  systems  of  Florida 
— Mr.  Mason  Young,  a  name  well  known  in  New  York,  and 
Mr.  Alfred  Bishop  Mason,  a  name  equally  well  known  in 
Chicago — ^were  about  to  make  a  visit,  and  invited  me  to 
keep  them  company.  As  the  journey  was  partly  by  rail 
and  partly  by  boat,  it  gave  opportunity  to  see  both  the 
interior  and  the  river  and  coast  scenery. 

At  Palatka  we  crossed  the  St.  John's,  a  river  which, 
contrary  to  what  we  are  accustomed  to  consider  the  natural 
course  of  rivers,  runs  north,  so  that,  as  far  as  we  followed 
it,  we  were  going  up  stream,  though  down  south.  Travel- 
ling in  a  private  car,  we  were  a  little  company  by  ourselves, 
and  I  was  happy  to  find  that  there  was  a  lady  in  the  party, 
whose  society  gave  all  that  was  wanting  to  make  it  com- 
plete. As  the  car  was  attached  to  the  train  at  the  end, 
and  had  plate-glass  windows  on  both  sides  and  in  the  rear, 
we  had  an  unobstructed  view  of  the  country  as  we  roUed 
swiftly  by.  New  settlements  were  sprinkled  here  and 
there  :  sometimes  houses  would  be  standing  alone  in  the 
pine  woods,  and  at  others  half  a  dozen  would  be  clustered 
together  so  as  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  village.  In  the 
latter  case  there  was  sure  to  be  a  New  England  air  about 
the  place,  indicated  in  the  fenced  grounds  and  framed 
houses,  neatly  boarded  and  painted,  with  a  pretty  chui'ch 
and  school-house  in  the  centre — which  showed  where  the 
first  settlers  came  from.  This  part  of  Florida  is  largely 
settled  by  people  from  the  North,  and  I  am  told,  that  while 
there  is  no  conflict  between  them  and  the  poor  whites 
known  as  the  "  Crackers,"  yet  that  the  latter,  finding  them- 
selves unable  to  compete  with  the  more  industrious  habits 


EXPERIENCE  OF  AN  OLD  ARMY  OFFICER.  55 

of  tlie  new  comers,  are  generally  quite  willing  to  sell  out 
their  plantations,  wliich  have  been  run  down  by  long  neg- 
lect, and  move  off  into  the  less  settled  parts  of  the  South, 
to  begin  life  anew.  Their  successors  here  have  tried  other 
methods  of  cultivation,  the  result  of  which  is  seen  in  the 
orange  groves,  richly  laden  with  the  golden  fruit,  that 
extend  for  miles  along  the  road.  • 

Look  at  this  pretty  village  of  Seville,  that  in  spite  of 
its  Spanish  name,  might  have  been  transplanted  from 
Massachusetts,  since  we  see  in  it,  what  is  very  rare  in 
Florida,  a  well-kept  lawn,  which  shows  that  with  proper 
care  it  is  possible  to  have  the  green  turf  of  New  England. 
Here  several  friends  joined  us,  and  added  to  the  gayety  of 
our  little  party.  One  gentleman,  an  old  army  officer,  gave 
me  his  experience  of  life  in  his  new  home.  He  had  come 
here  broken  in  health,  almost  seeking  a  place  to  die  ;  but 
after  awhile  concluded  that  it  was  better  to  live  ;  and  took 
his  section,  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  to  which  he  was 
entitled  by  his  soldier's  warrant,  on  which  he  planted,  not 
his  "vineyard  and  olive-yard,"  like  the  ancient  Jew  in 
Palestine,  but  his  orange  grove  ;  and  in  due  time  found 
himself  not  only  reestablished  in  health,  but  prospering  in 
his  worldly  affairs.  Lest,  however,  anybody  should  jump 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  has  but  to  move  to  Florida  and 
plant  an  orange  grove,  to  be  rich,  it  should  be  added  that 
from  the  time  of  planting  to  the  time  of  hearing  will  take 
eight  or  ten  years  ;  so  that  none  need  try  it  who  have  not 
some  little  capital  to  start  upon,  and  above  all  a  large 
stock  of  New  England  thrift,  patience,  and  perseverance. 
I  could  not  but  listen  with  wonder  to  his  report  of  the 
productiveness  of  Florida,  which  reminded  me  of  the  mar- 
vellous tales  that  I  had  heard  in  Southern  California.  At 
first  I  was  a  little  incredulous  :  for  the  country  looked 
very  barren,  and  I  thought  it  must  be  poor  and  unpro- 


56  ON  THE  INDIAN  RIVER. 

ductive.  But  lie  explained  that,  while  this  soil  would 
not  produce  much  at  the  North,  it  would  here,  owing  to 
the  greater  warmth,  combined  with  the  greater  moisture. 
The  elements  which  enter  into  vegetation  come  not  from 
the  soil  alone,  but  from  the  air,  the  vapor,  and  the  dew,  the 
rain  and  the  sunshine,  aU  of  which  are  supplied  from  the 
resources  of  nature  ;  so  that  if  man  will  but  help  a  little, 
giving  very  moderate  cultivation,  the  earth  will  bring 
forth  abundantly. 

Nor  is  this  prodigality  of  nature  confined  to  the  sub- 
tropical fruits,  but  extends  equally  to  all  the  produce  of 
the  garden  (Irish  potatoes  growing  as  well  as  sweet  pota- 
toes), to  peas  and  tomatoes  and  cauliflowers,  from  which 
it  seems  probable  that  with  the  increased  production  from 
year  to  year,  and  sufficient  transportation  (for  already  it  is 
said  that  the  railroads  are  not  able  to  carry  the  crops), 
Florida  will  soon  be  able  to  supply  the  markets  of  Wash- 
ington, Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York,  with  green 
peas  and  early  potatoes,  and  all  the  produce  of  vegetable 
gardens,  a  month  or  six  weeks  before  they  can  be  obtained 
from  Charleston  and  Savannah. 

The  road  that  we  had  been  following  continues  to 
Tampa  Bay,  where  it  connects  with  a  line  of  steamers  to 
Cuba,  which  will  land  the  traveller  in  Havana  in  thirty 
hours,  or  in  three  and  a  half  days  from  New  York,  instead 
of  the  week  now  taken  by  steamer.  This  will  furnish  also 
the  quickest  route  to  South  American  ports.  As  we  how- 
ever were  bound  to  a  point  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  we  left 
the  main  line  at  Enterprise,  and  turned  eastward,  and  in 
an  hour  were  at  Titusville,  where  the  train  ran  down  to 
the  wharf  beside  the  steamer,  and  at  three  o'clock  we  were 
afloat  on  the  Indian  river — a  name  hitherto  known  to  us 
only  by  its  delicious  oranges,  but  now  to  be  known  by  its 
beautiful  scenery.      But  first  of  all,  it  is  not  a  river  at 


THE  PALMS  WHISPER  TO  THE  PINES.  57 

all,  but  simply  an  arm  of  the  sea,  a  long  lagune,  which  in 
some  places  is  three  or  four,  or  even  five  and  six,  miles 
broad.  The  beauty  of  it  is  on  its  western  bank,  where  the 
low,  flat  country  rising  a  few  feet  above  the  water,  is  digni- 
fied with  the  name  of  a  hlvff.  Its  apparent  elevation  is 
heightened  by  its  being  densely  wooded  with  palms !  Not 
indeed  the  stately  date-palms  of  .Egypt,  but  only  with  the 
"  cabbage  palm,"  so  named  from  its  cabbage-like  head,  but 
which  still,  with  its  tall  trunk  and  tufted  crown,  forms  a 
striking  figure  in  the  landscape,  giving  it  more  of  a  tropical 
character  than  anything  I  had  seen  before,  and  as  I  sat  on 
the  deck  in  the  gloaming,  and  watched  the  shores  growing 
dim,  memory  went  back  to  the  old  days  when  I  floated 
past  groves  of  palms  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile. 

All  along  this  bank  there  are  plantations,  the  houses 
peering  out  from  under  the  trees,  and  every  few  miles  a 
little  village,  from  which  a  projecting  wharf  gives  facilities 
for  the  conveyance  of  travellers  and  the  shipment  of  freight. 
The  most  considerable  of  these  river-towns  is  Rock  Ledge, 
to  which  they  brought  President  Cleveland  and  his  wife  on 
their  visit  to  Florida  last  year,  to  show  them  the  beauty  of 
the  country — where  we  landed  and  walked  a  mile  along 
the  bank,  past  a  succession  of  pretty  Winter  retreats, 
embowered  in  palms. 

Back  of  the  pahns  were  the  orange  groves  in  all  their 
luxuriance  :  but  the  orange  region  ends  soon  after,  oranges 
giving  place  to  fruits  of  a  more  tropical  character.  The 
guava  is  cultivated  for  the  jeUy  made  from  it,  of  which 
there  is  a  manufactory  on  Merritt's  Island,  the  product  of 
which  is  shipped  largely  to  Northern  cities  ;  and  at  Eden, 
a  few  miles  farther  south,  is  a  very  extensive  plantation  of 
pineapples,  which  are  grown  here  with  entire  success. 

The  morning  found  us  still  floating  southward,  which 
soon  brought  us  into  the  narrows  of  the  Indian  river,  where 


58  THE  AMPHIBIOUS  MANGROVES. 

for  some  miles  it  is  not  wider  than  the  Housatonic  at 
Stockbridge,  while  the  dense  vegetation  on  either  hand 
was  delightfully  suggestive  of  the  willows  that  bend  over 
our  beautiful  stream.  Here  the  palms  give  place  to  man- 
groves, the  tree  that  lives  in  water,  in  swamps,  and  on  the 
banks  of  streams.  This  amphibious  character  is  almost  a 
necessity,  for  as  the  country  itseK  is  so  largely  under  water, 
if  trees  could  only  find  a  foothold  on  dry  land,  there  would 
be  no  vegetation  at  all.  And  yet,  to  complete  the  contra- 
dictions, these  trees,  which  live  in  water,  have  half  their 
roots  above  water  as  well  as  above  ground,  so  that  they 
seem  to  be  standing  on  stilts.  They  are  like  the  blue 
herons  that  we  see  in  these  waters,  putting  their  long 
skinny  legs  without  fear  into  the  ooze  and  slime  of  the 
river  bed,  while  they  carry  their  brilliant  plumage  high  in 
air.  I  have  been  watching  these  birds  with  admiration  to 
see  how,  while  the  flocks  of  ducks  go  "  scooting  "  by,  the 
herons  stand  with  quiet  dignity,  stepping  slowly  with  eye 
cast  downward  till  they  spy  the  looked-for  fish,  which  is 
snapped  up  in  an  instant,  when  they  spread  their  wings 
and  soar  majestically  away.  "What  the  herons  and  the 
cranes  are  among  birds,  the  mangroves  are  among  trees, 
standing  on  long  legs,  that  are  naked  as  bones,  and  yet, 
carrying  crowns  of  verdure  on  their  heads.  As  their  foliage 
is  a  vivid  green,  the  two  banks  form  a  beautiful  fringe  to 
the  waters,  so  calm  and  still,  that  flow  between. 

The  navigation  through  this  mass  of  vegetation  is  very 
intricate.  The  river  has  so  many  twists  and  turns,  that  it 
seems  as  if  it  could  only  be  threaded  by  a  rowboat.  The 
mazes  would  be  quite  impenetrable  for  a  steamer,  except 
one  of  the  lightest  draft.  Our  boat,  the  St.  Lucie,  draws 
but  nineteen  inches  of  water,  and  is  propelled  by  a  wheel 
at  the  stern.  Yet  even  with  this  light  build,  she  finds  it 
difficult  to  work  her  way  through,  and  has  to  be  handled 


INTRICATE  NAVIGATION.  59 

with  the  greatest  care.  At  such  times  the  captain,  whose 
name  of  "  Bravo  "  indicates  his  Spanish  origin,  and  who 
is  very  proud  of  his  new  boat  (this  was  her  second  trip), 
not  tnjsting  to  any  one  but  himself,  throws  off  his  coat, 
that  he  may  have  free  use  for  his  strong  arms,  and  takes 
his  place  at  the  wheel.  In  some  places  a  channel  has  been 
marked  by  stakes  just  wide  enough  for  her  to  squeeze 
through.  Sometimes  she  swings  with  the  current,  or  with 
the  tide  (for  we  are  nearing  the  sea),  and  as  she  is  122  feet 
long,  she  touches  the  bank  on  both  sides,  and  the  negroes 
have  to  push  her  off  with  their  poles  at  one  end  and  the 
other.  Then  the  captain  is  in  his  element,  shouting  right 
and  left  "All  clare  tharf"  till  after  a  tug  of  a  few  minutes 
the  boat  eases  up,  and  swings  into  her  place,  and  as  she 
moves  forward,  the  boatmen,  relieved  of  their  strain,  break 
out  in  some  negro  melody,  that  makes  a  pleasant  accom- 
paniment to  the  motion  of  the  boat  as  she  glides  gently 
through  the  water.  And  thus  at  noon  of  the  second  day, 
we  reached  Jupiter  Inlet  on  the  coast,  nearly  three  hun- 
dred miles  south  of  St.  Augustine. 

Having  reached  this  remote  quarter  of  the  world,  we 
look  round  to  see  if  there  be  anything  worth  coming  for. 
It  does  not  look  very  promising.  There  is  but  one  house, 
and  that  I  have  not  been  into.  Yet  here  I  have  spent  three 
days  on  an  old  steamboat,  with  about  as  many  resources 
as  Robinson  Crusoe  had  on  his  desolate  island.  No  !  that 
is  "  putting  it  rather  strong  "  :  for  Robinson  Crusoe,  with 
aU  his  handicraft  and  skill  in  using  pieces  of  wreck  to 
make  his  island  castle,  never  had  anything  so  habitable  as 
the  good  old  Chattahoochee  ;  and  for  company  he  had  to 
content  himself  with  his  man  Friday,  while  here  I  have 
three  charming  companions,  Still,  stranded  on  this  Florida 
coast,  which  has  been  strown  with  hundreds  of  wrecks,  it 
does  not  take  much  imagination  to  fancy  ourselves  cast 


60  THE  CHATTAHOOCHEE. 

away  on  a  desolate  island.  But  if  the  experience  be  new, 
it  is  not  unpleasant  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  delightful  now 
and  then  to  come  into  this  close  contact  with  nature,  and 
to  be  living  for  a  few  days  like  babes  in  the  woods. 

The  old  steamer  which  is  our  home,  has  itself  a  history. 
Its  very  name  tells  the  place  of  its  birth,  on  the  Chattahoo- 
chee river,  which  in  the  times  before  the  flood — that  is, 
before  the  war — was  a  great  highway  of  commerce,  bring- 
ing the  product  of  the  cotton  fields  of  Georgia  and  Alabama 
to  Apalachicola,  then  the  third  cotton  port  of  the  United 
States,  but  which  is  now  all  overgrown  with  weeds,  since 
the  opening  of  railroads  has  diverted  its  trade  to  other 
commercial  centres.  In  those  days  she  was  a  famous 
steamboat,  and  even  still,  if  her  fires  were  lighted,  would 
show  her  heels  to  many  a  boat  that  has  not  seen  half  her 
years  ;  but  she  is  now  honorably  retired,  and  moored  in 
a  qaiet  haven,  and  being  fitted  up  for  her  present  use, 
serves  as  a  kind  of  wayside,  or  rather  seaside,  inn,  and  is  a 
truly  delightful  place  of  rest  for  wanderers  like  ourselves. 

We  arrived  Saturday  noon.  Hardly  had  we  sat  down 
to  dinner,  before  one  of  the  party  invited  me  to  take  a 
drive  with  him  in  the  afternoon  to  Lake  "Worth,  and  we 
were  soon  mounted  in  a  rough  country  wagon,  drawn  by 
a  pair  of  mules,  with  which  we  went  jolting  over  the  road. 
Once  out  of  the  border  of  trees  that  skirt  the  water  side, 
and  on  what  might  be  called  the  open  prairie,  our  course 
was  straight  as  an  arrow,  for  it  was  along  the  track  of  a 
railroad  which  has  just  been  laid  out,  and  is  only  waiting 
for  the  rails,  so  that  we  had  not  to  turn  to  the  right  or 
left,  but  only  to  "  plough  ahead  "  through  the  deep  sand. 
"And  what  does  this  ride  across  country  remind  you  of  ?  " 
"  Why,  of  dear  old  Nantucket."  Sure  enough,  it  was  the 
ride  to  Sconset  over  again.  The  rough  plain  was  like  a 
Scottish  moor,  bleak  and  bare,  though  instead  of  the  gorse 


LAKE  WORTH.  61 

and  heather,  it  was  covered  with  the  coarse  pabnetto  grass, 
which,  though  now  mere  useless  stubble,  is  said  to  furnish 
the  finest  possible  material  for  paper,  if  it  were  within 
reach  of  a  port,  from  which  it  could  be  shipped  to  the 
Northern  markets.  The  country  was  not  so  dismally  flat 
as  much  of  that  we  had  passed  over,  but  slightly  rolling. 
These  swells  of  ground  are  rea%  sand-dunes  cast  up  by 
the  waves,  and  rising  over  them  one  after  another,  we  came 
at  last  in  full  view  of  the  ocean. 

A  mile  or  two  farther  brought  us  to  Lake  Worth,  or 
rather  to  one  end  of  it — the  smaller  of  the  twin  lakes — 
which  in  New  England  we  should  call  a  pond.  It  is  a 
lonely  spot,  on  which  stands  a  soUtary  house,  with  the 
master  of  which  Mr.  Young  had  some  business,  and  whose 
name,  to  my  surprise,  was  the  same  as  my  own.  While 
they  were  engaged  in  conversation,  I  turned  to  the  young 
wife  and  learned  that  her  husband  was  the  son  of  my  old 
friend  Eichard  Field,  of  Bound  Brook,  New  Jersey,  who 
more  than  forty  years  ago  was  a  trustee  of  the  church  in 
St.  Louis  of  which  I  was  the  youthful  pastor.  The  husband 
added,  on  learning  my  name,  that  I  had  baptized  him ! 
This  was  indeed  finding  a  lost  sheep  in  the  wilderness.  I 
could  but  hope  that  the  grace  communicated  in  baptism, 
whatever  that  might  be,  had  not  wholly  departed  from  him. 

The  place  is  quite  out  of  the  world,  but  it  will  not 
always  be  so,  for  it  Hes  in  the  pathway  of  progress.  If  it 
had  not  been  Saturday  afternoon,  and  we  could  have  con- 
tinued our  excursion  a  little  farther,  we  should  have  seen 
more  of  its  possibilities  ;  for,  taking  a  boat  and  rounding 
yonder  point,  we  should  have  come  into  the  larger  part  of 
Lake  Worth,  where  is  the  promise  of  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  Winter  resorts  in  Florida.  On  a  ridge  of  land 
between  the  lake  and  the  ocean,  are  already  several  gentle- 
men's places,  with  extensive  grounds  laid  out  as  if  by  a 


62  CARRYING  THE  MAIL  ON  FOOT. 

landscape  gardener.  The  air  is  deliciously  soft  because  of 
the  nearness  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  which,  coming  up  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  here  so  wedged  in  between  the  main 
land  and  the  Bahamas  (only  eighty  miles  distant)  that  it 
almost  touches  the  coast.  The  vegetation  of  the  country 
also  takes  another  step,  for  these  plantations  are  not  of 
oranges,  nor  pineapples,  nor  bananas,  but  cocoanut  palms, 
which  shows  that  we  are  advancing  towards  the  tropics. 
Indeed,  it  is  only  by  taking  such  a  stretch  through  the 
interior  and  along  the  coast  of  Florida,  that  we  realize 
how  many  degrees  of  latitude  are  traversed  by  this  mighty 
Peninsula,  in  which  we  pass  from  one  climate  to  another. 

On  how  grand  a  scale  is  everything  here,  we  may  see 
by  another  measurement  of  distances.  Not  only  is  the 
State  immense  in  territory,  but  it  has  counties  that  are 
larger  than  some  of  our  Northern  States.  For  example, 
the  county  in  which  we  now  are,  begins  far  up  on  the 
Indian  river,  and  yet  the  county-seat  is  sixty  miles  (a 
whole  degree  of  latitude)  to  the  south  of  us,  to  reach  which 
one  must  pass  through  a  country  so  destitute  of  inhabitants 
that  the  mail  has  to  be  carried  on  foot !  There  is  not  a 
wagon  road,  nor  even  a  mule  path !  The  carrier  has  to 
tramp  the  whole  distance,  taking  two  days  for  the  journey 
there,  and  two  days  for  the  return.  Sometimes  (as  a  resi- 
dent informed  me)  he  carries  one  letter,  and  sometimes  his 
mail-pouch  is  empty  !     But  it  has  to  go  ! 

This  lonely  journey,  as  might  be  supposed,  is  attended 
with  a  good  deal  of  difficulty,  and  with  some  danger. 
There  are  rivers  to  be  crossed,  for  which  a  boat  must  be 
always  ready.  Last  year  a  postman  came  to  the  bank,  and 
found  that  some  tramp  had  taken  his  skiff  and  rowed  him- 
self to  the  other  side,  and  left  it  there.  Full  of  patriotic 
zeal  to  do  his  duty,  the  faithful  messenger, 

** Accoutred  as  he  was,  plunged  in  " ;  / 


''limitations  of  responsibility."  63 

but  before  he  could  reach  the  other  side,  a  man-eating 
shark  had  seized  him,  and  with  no  respect  for  a  govern- 
ment officer,  made  a  meal  of  him !  I  hope  it  was  a 
consolation  to  him  that  he  died  in  the  performance  of  his 
duty.  His  country  could  ask  no  more.  Some  years  since 
President  Wayland  published  a  book  on  "  The  Limitations 
of  Responsibility."  It  is  a  nice  question  in  many  cases 
where  responsibility  ends ;  but  I  think  the  most  severe 
moralist  would  agree  that  a  man  who  had  been  eaten  up 
by  a  shark,  could  not  be  expected  to  appear  at  roU-call  the 
next  morning ! 

But  these  dangers  will  not  always  attend  this  service, 
since  this  state  of  isolation  will  not  continue,  for  it  is  pro- 
posed to  bring  the  local  government  sixty  miles  nearer  by 
transferring  the  county-seat  to  the  north  side  of  Lake 
Worth,  indeed  planting  it  on  the  farm-land  of  my  name- 
sake, who  offers  to  give  the  ground  for  the  court-house.  If 
he  should  also  give  a  site  for  a  religious  purpose,  and  in 
time  there  should  spring  up  a  little  church  in  the  wilder- 
ness, I  should  think  that  the  water  of  baptism  which  I  had 
poured  upon  his  childish  head,  had  not  been  sprinkled  in 
vain. 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  we  turned  homeward. 
By  this  time  the  air  had  changed.  In  coming  over,  it  was 
so  warm  (though  it  was  the  2d  of  February)  that  I  had  to 
raise  my  umbrella  to  protect  me  from  the  sun,  and  should 
have  been  glad  of  a  straw  hat.  But  now  it  was  the  cool 
of  the  day,  and  we  drew  our  overcoats  about  us.  Yet  the 
ride  was  more  beautiful  than  before,  for  as  the  twilight  feU 
on  the  landscape,  its  bareness  was  softened,  and  as  it  were 
clothed  with  a  mantle,  by  the  gathering  shades  of  evening, 
and  we  saw  before  us  only  the  dim  outline  of  a  wide  sweep 
of  country  roUing  like  the  sea,  as  if  it  were  keeping 
measure  with  "  Old  Ocean's  gray  and  melancholy  waste," 


64  A  SABBATH  ON  THE  STILL  WATERS. 

while  the  silence  was  broken  only  by  the  dashing  of  the 
waves.  On  our  left  a  new  moon  hung  its  crescent  in  the 
sky,  and  above  it  shone  the  evening  star.  One  by  one  the 
stars  came  out,  till  the  firmament  was  all  aglow  with  the 
celestial  fires.  I  was  a  Httle  confused  not  to  find  the  con- 
stellations in  their  accustomed  places.  The  change  of 
fourteen  degrees  of  latitude,  from  New  York  to  Jupiter 
Inlet,  had  upset  things,  and  it  was  not  till  I  was  on  the 
deck  of  the  steamer  that  I  could  take  my  bearings.  I 
found  the  Dipper,  though  with  the  handle  turned  down- 
ward, but  the  last  two  stars  still  pointed  faithfully  to  the 
north.  It  was  a  relief  to  find  that  "  all  things  continued 
as  they  were  from  the  beginning,"  and  that  suns  and 
systems  still  revolved  around  "  the  steady  pole." 

As  I  woke  the  next  morning,  I  missed  the  dear  faces 
and  the  dear  voices  that  make  a  part  of  the  Sabbath  at 
home  ;  but  it  was  not  all  silent  and  vacancy.  There  were 
friends  who  made  a  little  home  circle  even  so  far  away ; 
and  there  was  another  presence,  as  on  the  gentle  air  of 
morning  came  the  Angel  of  Peace.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  the  Sabbath  should  be  ushered  in  by  the  ringing  of 
bells  :  it  can  come  to  us  in  the  solitary  place  where  no 
man  is.  Some  of  the  sweetest  that  I  have  ever  known, 
have  been  in  almost  absolute  solitude.  Years  ago  I  spent 
a  Sabbath  in  the  Wilderness,  on  the  way  to  Mount 
Sinai,  when  we  camped  where  Moses  camped,  in  the  Wady 
Feiran,  a  deep  valley  surrounded  by  mountains  ;  and  at 
sunset  climbed  the  very  peak  on  which  he  prayed  while 
Israel  fought  with  Amalek,  and  Aaron  and  Hur  held  up 
his  hands  till  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  Here  we  are 
not  among  rocks  and  mountains,  but  amid  woods  and 
waters  ;  but  here,  as  there,  is  the  same  stillness  and  rest, 
the  same  absence  of  all  intrusion  from  the  world,  and  the 
same  sense  of  being  brought  nearer  to  God. 


THE  SIGNAL  STATION.  65 

Across  the  water,  hardly  a  stone's  throw  from  us,  stood 
the  Lighthouse  and  the  Signal  Station,  and  they  had  such 
a  solitary  look,  and  the  keepers  must  lead  such  a  lonely 
Hfe,  that  it  seemed  the  part  of  humanity  to  go  over  and 
give  them  a  little  of  our  company.  Accordingly  towards 
evening  the  Captain  of  the  Chattahoochee  rowed  me 
across.  At  the  Signal  Station  I  found  a  young  man  who 
had  received  his  training  at  Washington,  and  was  then 
assigned  to  this  post  of  observation.  Twice  a  day — at 
eight  in  the  morning  and  eight  in  the  evening — he  climbs 
his  signal-tower,  and  takes  the  figures  recorded  by  the 
barometer  and  other  instruments,  showing  the  pressure  of 
the  atmosphere,  and  the  direction  and  velocity  of  the  wind, 
and  transmits  them  to  the  Signal  Bureau  at  Washington, 
where,  from  these  and  the  like  observations  made  on 
Mount  Washington  and  Pike's*  Peak,  and  at  fifty,  or  per- 
haps a  hundred,  other  stations  reaching  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  and  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is 
made  up  the  general  report  of  the  weather  throughout  the 
country,  with  the  probabilities  of  coming  storms,  which 
are  given  to  the  public  the  next  morning.  The  work  is 
very  interesting  in  a  scientific  point  of  view,  and  yet  it  is  a 
hard  life  as  well  as  a  solitary  one.  It  is  one  in  which  there 
is  no  let-up :  for  as  day  and  night.  Summer  and  Winter, 
do  not  cease,  so  the  observations  must  not  be  intermitted 
for  a  single  day.  In  the  blackest  night,  or  the  most  terrific 
storm  of  thunder  and  lightning,  the  observer  must  climb 
his  watch-tower,  and  take  the  record  of  the  storms  and  the 
gales.  And  what  a  lonely  existence !  To  be  sure,  he  has 
an  assistant,  a  man  Friday  ;  but  even  two  must  find  this 
Robinson  Crusoe  Hfe  very  wearisome.  The  only  reflection 
that  can  make  one  endure  it,  is  the  military  one  :  that  he  is 
a  soldier  on  duty,  a  sentinel  keeping  watch  over  the  public 
safety  ;  and  that  a  brave  man  must  not  desert  his  post. 


66  THE  LIGHTHOUSE. 

From  the  Signal  Station  I  turned  to  the  taller  tower 
near  by,  and  climbed  the  iron  stairway  that  winds  round 
and  round  to  the  top  of  the  Lighthouse.  Here  is  another 
post  of  duty  that  must  be  trying  to  the  nerres.  The  tower 
is,  I  think,  a  hundred  and  forty  feet  high,  and  though 
solidly  built,  with  massive  walls,  yet  at  that  height,  when 
the  wind  howls,  even  this  mighty  column  must  seem  to 
rock.  It  must  be  a  fearful  place  when  the  tempest  is 
abroad.  But  no  matter  what  the  danger  may  be,  that  light 
must  never  go  out.  It  is  at  such  times  that  it  is  most 
needed,  for  it  is  when  the  Atlantic  gales  are  sweeping  in 
all  their  fury,  and  ships  are  struggling  in  fear  of  wreck  on 
the  dangerous  coast,  that  the  mariner  watches  most  eagerly 
for  this  light,  on  which  his  safety  may  depend. 

My  sympathies  had  been  so  much  enlisted  for  the  men 
leading  this  lonely  life,  that  it  was  a  relief  to  hear  that  the 
keeper  of  the  Lighthouse,  who  had  been  here  some  twenty 
years,  was  proud  of  his  profession,  and  so  far  from  regard- 
ing himself  as  an  object  of  pity,  was  in  love  with  his  calling. 
He  has  indeed  (besides  his  two  assistants)  his  family 
with  him,  and  that  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world. 
It  was  very  pleasant  as  we  came  down  to  the  boat  to  meet 
a  motherly  face  leading  a  flock  of  children.  It  is  true 
these  did  not  happen  to  be  his  children  :  but  so  much  the 
better,  for  it  showed  that  there  were  other  children  also  in 
the  woods  about  here  ;  and  children,  even  more  than  the 
old  folks,  give  a  look  of  home  to  the  solitude.  On  the  bank 
of  the  river  behold  a  little  thatch -covered  schoolhouse, 
nestled  at  the  foot  of  a  cocoanut  palm,  which  leaned  over 
it  as  if  to  give  it  protection !  But  protection  sometimes 
involves  danger,  for  if  one  of  those  cocoanuts  that  hang  so 
high,  should  fall  upon  the  head  of  one  of  the  children,  it  is 
altogether  probable  that 
•*  The  subsequent  proceedings  would  Interest  him  no  more." 


SUNSET— PRAIKTES  ON  FIRE.  6t 

So  real  is  tlie  danger  that  last  year  an  athletic  young 
fellow  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  tree  and  cut  off  every 
cocoanut,  lest  a  premature  or  unexpected  descent  upon 
some  tender  brain  not  yet  sufficiently  "  armored,"  should 
interfere  sadly  with  the  cause  of  education  at  Jupiter  Inlet. 
Beturning  to  the  Chattahoochee,  I  found  all  on  deck, 
watching  the  sunset.  The  day  had  been  perfect.  Light, 
fleecy  clouds  had  softly  veiled  the  deep  blue  of  the  sky, 
and  now  they  lay  along  the  west,  receiving  and  reflecting 
the  last  rays  of  the  sun,  which,  as  the  country  is  low  and 
flat,  swept  all  round  the  horizon.  Slowly  the  light  faded 
out,  but  only  to  be  followed  by  another  illumination,  for  in 
the  distance  were  the  prairies  on  fire !  This  is  done  by  the 
cattle  owners,  who  every  year  burn  them  over,  so  that  out 
of  the  stubble  may  spring  a  fresh,  succulent  growth  for 
the  food  of  their  flocks  and  herds.  The  practice  provokes 
much  opposition,  and  may  yet  be  done  away  with.  But 
for  those  who  are  mere  spectators,  it  is  a  brilliant  spectacle. 
At  last,  however,  in  spite  of  fire  and  sunset,  and  the  kindling 
stars,  the  night  covered  the  earth,  and  then  it  was  that  we 
perceived  the  full  power  of  the  great  reflector  in  the  Light- 
house that  towered  above  us.  It  is  a  revolving  light,  that 
is,  one  that  is  constantly  turning,  now  growing  fainter  and 
fainter  till  it  is  almost  extinguished,  and  then  suddenly 
blazing  out  with  such  intensity  that  it  is  seen  twenty  miles 
at  sea.  At  such  moments  it  is  like  the  full  moon  coming 
out  of  a  cloud,  its  long  trail  of  light  quivering  on  the  water. 
There  was  something  fascinating  and  yet  startling  in  these 
sudden  transitions  from  light  to  dark,  and  dark  to  light, 
and  as  I  looked  up  at  that  great  orb  as  it  burst  upon  us  in 
its  fullest  splendor,  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  the  awful  eye  of 
God,  looking  down  from  the  height  of  heaven  upon  the 
darkness  of  this  world,  and  discovering  all  the  crimes  and 
wickedness  of  men. 


68  SPORTSMEN  AND   FISHERMEN. 

Life  is  fuJl  of  surprises,  bitter  and  sweet.     Our  experi- 
ence here  has  been  of  the  latter  kind.     I  feared  that  our 
"  boat-house  "  might  be  very  dull  (quiet,  to  be  sure,  but 
rather  too  much  of  a  good  thing),  and  was  ready  to  cry  out 
"  O  Solitude,  where  are  the  charms 
That  sages  have  seen  in  thy  face  ?  " 

But,  in  truth,  it  is  not  so  very  solitary.     If  there  be  not 
much  life  upon  the  land,  there  is  upon  the  water.     The 
Inlet  is  a  great  resort  of  sportsmen  and  fishermen  :   for 
there  is  abundance  of  game  in  the  woods,  and  of  fish  in 
the  sea.    Yachts  from  the  North  put  in  here  for  a  few  days* 
sport,  and  naphtha  launches  skim  the  water  like  birds. 
As  I  sit  on  the  deck,  I  see  here  and  there  a  rowboat  put- 
ting off  from  under  the  mangroves  that  Hne  the  river,  the 
oars  in  the  hands  of  some  old  sea-dog,  while  a  landsman 
sits  in  the  bow,  with  his  gun  across  his  knees,  as  they 
approach  softly  a  flock  of  ducks  that  are  floating  on  the 
water.    Every  few  minutes  I  hear  the  crack  of  the  rifle. 
The  spoils  of  the  sea  are  still  greater.     The  fish  caught 
daily  are  counted  by  the  hundred.     It  seemed  like  a  waste 
of  the  bounties  of  Providence,  that  the  greater  part  of 
them  should  be  thrown  away  for  want  of  any  man  to  eat 
them.      What  a  pity  when  there   are   so  many  hungry 
mouths  in  the  world !     Here  are  some  lovely  monsters  of 
the  deep — a  saw-fish  (not  a  sword-fish),  a  veritable  "Jack 
the  Ripper,"  with  a  projecting  saw  three  feet  long,  set  with 
teeth  like  spikes,  with  which  to  cut  and  tear  on  every  side ; 
and  a  shark  that  is  only  a  baby,  fotcr^r  five  feet  long,  but 
as  he  is  hauled  up  on  the  dock,  and  turned  over  on  his 
back,  and  the  little  darkies  pry  his  mouth  open,  they  start 
back  at  seeing  half  a  dozen  rows  of  teeth  that  would  make 
mince-meat  of  one  of  the  aforesaid  pickaninnies,  if  the 
scene  of  operations  were  transfen-ed  from  the  land  to  the 
water. 


j^LONG  THE  SEASHORE.  69 

Monday  morning  gave  promise  of  another  perfect  day, 
and  as  on  Saturday  we  had  taken  a  ride  inland,  it  was 
proposed  that  now  we  should  take  a  walk  by  the  sea. 
Along  the  Inlet,  as  along  the  bank  of  the  river  at  Kock 
Ledge,  the  palm  trees  make  a  pleasant  shade.  In  this 
thicket  or  jungle  I  did  not  find,  as  indeed  I  have  not  found 
anywhere  in  this  country,  trees  of  great  size,  that  show  in 
their  prodigious  girth  and  altitude  centuries  of  growth — 
nothing  to  compare  in  majesty  with  the  oaks  of  Old  Eng- 
land, or  the  elms  of  New  England. 

In  the  interior,  in  the  swamps  and  lowlands,  the  live 
oaks  and  cypresses  hung  with  moss,  true  gray-beards  of 
the  forest,  give  a  funereal  aspect  to  the  vast,  interminable 
wastes,  which  remind  one  of 

.  .  .  '*  The  forest  primeval, 
The  murmuring  pines  and  the  hemlocks," 

of  Longfellow's  poem,  but  in  general  there  is  a  depressing 
monotony.  One  exception,  however,  we  found  this  morn- 
ing in  a  tree  that  has  a  strange  name,  gumbo-limbo,  and 
whose  appearance  is  as  grotesque  as  its  name,  which 
indeed  had  something  almost  human  in  its  aspect,  as  its 
exposed  roots  and  arms  were  like  the  naked  limbs  of 
savages  bronzed  by  exposure  to  the  elements.  It  was  so 
gnarled  and  twisted,  that  it  seemed  to  writhe  in  pain,  as  if 
it  were  a  living  creature  that  had  committed  some  fearful 
crime,  whose  hands  were  stained  with  blood — a  deed  which 
it  was  to  expiate  by  centuries  of  torture. 

But  here  is  something  which  has  puzzled  the  learned 
more  than  any  vegetable  growth — a  shell  mound,  composed 
wholly  of  oyster  shells,  and  yet  it  must  be  of  a  great  age, 
as  it  is  covered  thick  with  earth,  and  overgrown  with  vege- 
tation. It  is  so  large  and  so  regular,  rising  on  the  shore 
of  the  Inlet,  like  the  earthwork  of  some  ancient  forti- 
fication, that  it  must  have  been  the  work  of  men's  hands. 


10  THE  OYSTER  MOUNDS. 

But  whose  hands  ?  Civilized  or  barbarian  ?  And  how 
many  ages  have  passed  away  since  they  were  piled  upon 
this  shore  ?  These  are  questions  more  easily  asked  than 
answered.  Commodore  Douglas  of  the  Yacht  Club,  who  has 
visited  Florida  for  many  years,  and  devoted  much  of  his 
time  to  the  opening  of  these  mounds,  is  of  the  opinion  that 
they  are  the  remains  of  Indian  feasts.  The  records  of  the 
early  Spanish  explorers  tell  us  that  on  its  discovery  Florida 
had  a  dense  population.  The  natives  lived  in  the  interior, 
on  plantations  which  are  now  grown  up  with  pine  woods, 
but  once  in  the  year,  after  they  had  planted  their  fields — 
between  the  planting  and  the  reaping — they  migrated  to 
the  seashore  for  the  food  which  the  sea  afforded  in  abun- 
dance. Here  they  pitched  their  wigwams  and  fished  in  the 
sea,  and  dug  oysters  out  of  their  beds,  and  gathering  on 
the  shore,  had  their  pow-wows  and  barbecues,  the  remains 
of  which  are  now  disinterred  to  be  the  wonder  and  the 
riddle  of  modern  explorers.  It  is  an  ingenious  theory,  and 
yet  I  am  a  little  staggered  by  the  extent  of  these  mounds, 
as  fifty  miles  below  St.  Augustine,  at  Ormond,  there  is  a 
mound  eight  miles  long!  Truly  there  must  have  been 
Indians  in  those  days.  The  woods  must  have  been  full  of 
them.  If  these  are  the  remains  of  Indian  feasts,  I  have  a 
horrible  suspicion  that  they  were  scenes  of  cannibalism,  or 
were  attended  with  human  sacrifices !  Aud  perhaps  some 
old  savage  chief,  who  delighted  in  blood,  has  been  punish- 
ed for  his  cruelty  by  being  turned  into  that  gumbo-limbo 
tree,  where  he  now  writhes  in  pain,  like  Laocoon  and  his 
sons,  wrapped  in  the  coils  of  the  python,  to  be  crushed  in 
its  mighty  folds. 

Thus  observing  and  philosophizing  by  the  way  as  we 
strolled  along  the  shore,  we  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Inlet 
through  which  the  tides  ebb  and  flow,  making  it  a  part  of 
the  sea,  where  we  stretch  ourselves  like  so  many  children. 


THE  SANDS  AND  THE   SHELLS.  11 

Is  there  a  more  delicious  sensation  than  that  of  lying  down 
on  the  soft  warm  sand  on  the  shore  of  the  sea  ?  How  clean 
it  is,  washed  by  a  thousand  waves  !  I  do  not  wonder  that 
the  ancient  Fathers  of  the  Church  allowed  the  use  of  sand 
in  baptism  where,  as  on  the  desert,  water  could  not  be 
obtained,  for  there  is  no  more  perfect  emblem  of  purity. 
And  how  soft  it  is,  yielding  under  us  like  a  bed  of  down, 
while  the  waves  come  rohing  in,  not  roughly  and  angrily, 
but  softly,  gently  rippling  up  the  beach.  And  the  air ! 
was  there  ever  anything  so  pure  inhaled  by  human  lungs? 
There  seems  a  waste  in  nature,  that  the  water  and  the  air 
that  might  revive  so  many,  are  thus  spent  in  vain.  If  they 
could  only  be  carried  into  our  cities,  into  the  tenement 
houses,  where  tens  of  thousands  swelter  in  the  Summer 
heat,  and  gasp  for  a  breath  of  air,  how  many  poor  suffer- 
ing creatures  might  be  brought  back  to  life.  As  I  lie  here, 
looking  up  into  the  light  clouds  sailing  by  in  this  heavenly 
atmosphere,  I  feel  Hke  repeating  the  prayer  of  the  old 
prophet :  "  Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath,  and 
breathe  upon  these  slain  [the  sick  and  the  dying]  that 
they  may  live  " ! 

The  sea  shore  is  a  grand  school  for  the  study  of  natural 
history.  The  beach  is  strown  with  shells,  miracles  of 
beauty  of  color  and  exquisite  in  design.  Here  is  the  little 
nautilus  with  its  tiny  sail.  How  fragile  it  seems !  as  if  a 
breath  of  air,  or  the  toss  of  a  wave,  would  dash  it  to  atoms. 
And  yet  He  without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground,  guides  its  little  bark  over  the  troubled  sea.  The 
shells  scattered  on  this  beach,  in  the  hand  of  a  master 
like  Agassiz,  would  furnish  a  powerful  argument  for  that 
Creative  Mind  which  he  saw  behind  all  the  forms  of  nature, 
a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God. 

As  it  is  a  bright  morning  and  the  sea  is  smooth,  pass- 
ing ships  come  in  quite  near  to  the  land.     Yonder  is  a 


12  THE  PIRATES  OF  THE  GULF. 

great  steamer  bound  to  Havana.  Oif  the  Inlet  the  Gulf 
Stream  does  not  come  so  close  to  the  coast  as  at  Lake 
Worih,  and  South-bound  ships  pass  inside  of  it,  so  as  not 
to  have  to  breast  the  mighty  current  which  flows  north  at 
the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour,  while  ships  bound  in  the 
opposite  direction,  strike  out  boldly  into  the  middle  of  the 
Stream,  so  as  to  be  swept  along  all  the  more  swiftly  by  it. 
We  are  now  in  the  track  of  a  great  commerce,  to  aU  the 
shores  of  the  Gulf,  and  to  the  northern  and  western  coast 
of  South  America.  Through  the  narrow  passage  between 
the  mainland  and  the  Bahamas,  the  Spanish  galleons  once 
carried  the  gold  and  silver  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  and  here 
the  Buccaneers  lay  in  wait  for  them.  There  is  no  part  of 
the  American  coast  more  full  of  legends  of  wild  adventure, 
or  that  has  witnessed  more  scenes  of  battle  and  of  blood. 

Nor  did  the  adventures  end  with  the  Spaniards  and  the 
Buccaneers.  The  peculiar  formation  of  the  coast  of  Flori- 
da, and  of  all  of  the  northern  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
studded  with  innumerable  islands,  afforded  secret  passages 
for  those  embarked  in  unlawful  enterprises,  and  so  became 
the  hiding-places  of  pirates,  who  were  for  a  time  the  terror 
of  the  Western  Continent,  as  the  Barbary  pirates  were  of 
the  Mediterranean.  From  this  concealment  the  famous 
Capt.  Kidd  made  his  raids  upon  the  commerce  of  his  day, 

Till  his  career  was  ended 

By  his  being  suspended. 

But  he  did  not  mean  that  the  world  should  forget  him,  for 
by  burying  his  treasure  in  the  sand,  he  kept  curiosity 
alive,  and  set  treasure-hunters  to  digging  to  the  present 
day. 

The  execution  of  a  few  such  bold  leaders  as  Kidd  was 
of  course  a  great  damper  to  "  the  business,"  yet  as  late  as 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  the  pirates  of  the 
Gulf  were  still  a  terror  to  all  who  sailed  along  the  South- 


WRECKS  AND  WRECKERS.  13 

ern  coast ;  one  of  the  sad  tales  of  which  was  that  the  only 
daughter  of  Aaron  Burr,  returning  from  Charleston,  was 
taken  by  pirates,  and  made  to  walk  the  plank  !  Still  later, 
a  remnant  of  them  had  their  lair  at  the  Belize  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  to  watch  for  ships  coming  to 
New  Orleans.  But  aU  these  nests  of  piracy  were  finally 
broken  up  as  the  country  became  more  thickly  settled. 
The  "  good  old  times  "  were  gone,  and  with  them 

.  .  .  "the  good  old  plan 
That  he  should  take  who  had  the  power, 
And  he  should  keep  who  can." 

Pursued  in  their  hiding-places,  and  cut  to  pieces,  the  last 
of  them  finally  surrendered  and  made  their  peace  with  the 
Government,  by  taking  service  with  Gen.  Jackson,  and 
fighting  bravely  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans.  Since  then, 
we  have  heard  no  more  of  the  pirates  of  the  Gulf. 

But  all  dangers  of  the  coast  are  not  over.  The  sea  is 
not  always  so  smooth  as  it  is  this  morning.  Storms  come 
out  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  as  well  as  the  Stream  which 
bears  its  name,  and  sometimes  sweep  along  the  coast  with 
tremendous  power.  Now  and  then  the  Weather  Bureau 
at  Washington  gives  warning  of  the  approach  of  a  cyclone, 
that  is  coming  up  from  the  South,  which  may  not  expend 
itself  till  it  has  cast  up  wrecks  all  along  the  seaboard  to 
Maine.  Its  first  destruction  is  felt  on  the  coast  of  Florida, 
where  along  the  border  of  the  Gulf  Stream  there  are  eddies 
and  currents  that  drive  a  ship,  that  has  become  helpless  in 
the  fury  of  a  gale,  upon  the  rocks  and  reefs.  Hence  this 
coast  has  had  a  bad  reputation  for  the  number  of  its  ship- 
wrecks, and  out  of  this  has  grown  another  ugly  business  : 
that  of  "  wreckers  " — a  rough  set  of  men,  who  lived  along 
the  shores,  keeping  a  lookout  for  ships  that  might  be 
caught  in  gales  and  storms.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  they 
were  not  always  so  fuU  of  sympathy  as  they  might  have 


7f  THE  LIFE-SAVIN  a  STATION. 

been  for  the  sufferings  of  their  fellow-creatures  ;  for  it  is 
said  that  they  even  set  decoy  lights  to  mislead  seamen  in 
dark  nights,  and  draw  them  on  to  destruction.  No  sooner 
did  they  see  a  ship  in  the  breakers  going  to  pieces,  than 
they  pounced  on  the  helpless  crew  as  vultures  sweep  down 
upon  a  camel  that  has  fallen  on  the  desert. 

There  was  a  time  when  this  "  business  "  was  lively  and 
flourishing,  but  the  "  profits  "  are  not  what  they  were.  Do 
you  see  that  little  building  on  a  point  that  overlooks  the 
sea?  That  is  the  Life-saving  Station,  manned  by  trusty 
seamen,  who  keep  watch  for  any  accident,  great  or  small. 
Only  yesterday,  as  some  of  our  party  were  walking  on  the 
seashore,  they  observed  a  yacht  trying  to  enter  the  Inlet. 
There  was  no  heavy  sea,  but  as  the  passage  is  narrow,  she 
fell  off  to  one  side,  and  was  soon  fast  in  the  sand.  There 
was  no  danger  so  long  as  the  sea  was  smooth,  but  a  strong 
wind  might  soon  put  her  in  peril.  But  hardly  had  the 
accident  occurred  before  half  a  dozen  stalwart  seamen 
came  at  full  speed  from  the  Station,  and  lending  their 
stout  arms  to  those  of  the  men  on  board,  soon  got  her  off 
into  deep  water  again. 

But  this  \^as  a  trifling  incident  compared  with  some 
which  they  have  to  face,  when  great  ships  are  utterly 
wrecked.  To  meet  this  appalling  danger,  the  Stations  are 
furnished  with  life-boats  and  every  appliance  for  extend- 
ing immediate  relief  to  those  in  the  utmost  peril.  If  a 
ship  gets  on  the  rocks  half  a  mile  at  sea,  and  the  waves 
are  running  so  high  that  no  boat  can  reach  her,  there  is 
another  resource.  In  a  corner  of  the  Station  stands  a 
short  but  big-throated  howitzer,  like  a  huge  St.  Bernard 
dog  on  the  top  of  the  Alps,  waiting  for  the  moment  of 
greatest  peril,  when  the  storm  is  wildest  and  the  snows 
are  deepest,  to  show  what  he  can  do.  Into  its  capacious 
mouth  the  seamen  thrust  a  ball,  to  which  is  attached  a 


SMUGGLING  FROM  CUBA.  lb 

long  line,  and  then  the  gun  is  pointed  high  in  air  and 
fired,  the  ball  streaming  away  like  a  rocket ;  and  as  it  falls 
into  the  sea,  it  drops  its  line  across  the  deck  of  the  foun- 
dering bark,  by  which  those  on  board  can  pull  in  a  heavier 
rope  and  make  it  fast,  and  then  lashing  themselves  to  it 
one  by  one,  can  all  at  last  escape  safe  to  land ! 

Of  course  the  old  wreckers  look  very  suUenly  at  this 
interference  of  the  Government  with  their  "legitimate 
business."  What  with  lighthouses  that  are  seen  twenty 
miles  at  sea,  and  life-saving  stations  aU  along  the  coast, 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  much  chance  for  them  to  pick 
up  a  living  in  the  old  way.  All  that  is  left  for  them  is  to 
do  a  little  smuggling.  Cuba  is  conveniently  near  to  the 
Florida  Coast,  and  it  is  easy  to  fiU  a  boat  with  a  cargo  of 
Havana  cigars,  and  running  in  among  the  "  Keys  "  (as  the 
little  islands  on  the  coast  are  called),  secrete  their  treasure 
in  some  hidden  nook.  But  here  again  they  are  pursued 
by  evil  fortune.  Hardly  have  they  got  on  shore,  and  are 
sitting  round  their  camp-fire,  when  the  "  myrmidons  of  the 
law  "  swoop  down  upon  thera,  and  "  gobble  up  "  the  cigars, 
and  "  hale  "  the  daring  boatmen  to  prison.  These  things 
are  trying  to  the  greatest  courage  and  endurance,  and  we 
can  hardly  wonder  that  they  sometimes  ask  the  question, 
which  is  asked  by  tramps  and  idlers  and  thieves  aU  over 
the  world,  "How  is  a  feUow  going  to  live?"  That  we 
leave  them  to  settle  among  themselves.  We  feel  the  same 
sort  of  sympathy  for  them  that  we  do  for  so  many  old 
wharf-rats  that  have  been  burrowing  under  and  into  a 
staunch  ship,  and  that  are  suddenly  routed  out ;  and  as 
we  see  them  flying  in  all  directions,  we  turn  with  renewed 
satisfaction  to  the  lighthouses  along  the  coast  that  have 
let  in  daylight  upon  them,  and  to  the  vigilant  men  who 
have  broken  up  these  old  haunts  of  crime,  and  say,  Blessed 
be  civilization ! 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

NEW  ENGLAND  IN   THE  SOUTH THE  OLD  HOME  AND 

THE  NEW  HOME. 

Florida  is  not  a  part  of  the  country  in  wHch  we  should 
look  for  New  England  ers,  any  more  than  for  Southerners 
in  the  forests  of  Maine.  But  the  irrepressible  Yankee  is 
everywhere,  from  the  Tropics  to  the  Pole.  The  war  sent 
the  men  of  Massachusetts  and  other  New  England  States, 
to  the  South  by  tens  of  thousands,  and  many  found  it  a 
goodly  land  to  stay  in  when  the  war  was  over.  Of  those 
who  marched  with  their  comrades  to  the  North,  where  the 
troops  were  disbanded,  some  made  their  way  back  again, 
finding  the  fertile  lands  and  mild  climate  of  the  South 
more  attractive  than  the  rocks  and  snows  of  New  Eng- 
land. But  they  did  not  come  in  great  numbers,  nor  in 
armed  battalions,  but  at  most  in  smaU  "  squads."  The 
greater  part  indeed  came  singly.  Here  and  there  an 
old  officer,  broken  in  health  by  his  hard  campaigns,  had 
come  to  Florida  to  die  ;  but  after  the  experience  of  a  few 
months,  concluded  to  postpone  his  departure,  and  stiQ 
abides  in  the  land,  enjoying  health  and  prosperity.  More 
often  those  who  had  served  in  the  camp  as  common  sol- 
diers, leaving  behind  them  their  knapsacks  and  their  guns, 


GATHERING  OF  THE  CLANS.  Tt 

and  with  nothing  in  the  world  but  their  strong  arms, 
sought  out  lonely  places  in  the  wildemess  where  land  was 
cheap,  and  with  their  axes  made  clearings  in  the  forest, 
and  there  built  them  cabins  and  planted  a  few  acres.  Thus 
coming  one  by  one,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  there  came 
to  be  "  quite  a  sprinkling  "  of  New  Englanders  through 
the  pine  woods  of  the  South ;  "and  as  they  were  a  hardy 
tribe,  in  whom  industry  and  economy  took  the  place  of  the 
old  shiftlessness,  they  began  to  thrive  in  the  land. 

Now  the  Yankees  are  a  clannish  race,  and  when  a  few 
of  them  find  themselves  within  reaching  distance,  they 
flock  together,  using  any  public  occasion — an  Agricultural 
Fair  or  a  Sub-tropical  Exposition — to  gather  round  some 
board,  where,  as  at  the  cherished  Thanksgivings,  old  mem- 
ories are  revived  and  old  customs  recalled.  The  day  which 
New  Englanders  have  a  right  to  consider  as  peculiarly 
their  own,  is  the  22d  of  December — the  day  on  which  the 
Pilgrims  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock.  But  such  a  cele- 
bration is  a  Movable  Feast,  the  particular  day  for  which 
may  be  made  to  suit  the  convenience  of  the  celebrators. 
In  Florida  the  New  Englanders  who  have  been  North  dur- 
ing the  Summer  and  Winter,  often  return  late,  and  are  not 
all  back  even  in  December  ;  so  that  it  was  thought  better 
to  fix  a  later  day,  and  for  this  year  they  chose  the  22 d  of 
February,  not  tliinking  it  a  misappropriation  of  the  birth- 
day of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  to  devote  it  to  remem- 
bering the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

Accordingly  on  that  day  there  was  a  gathering  of  the 
clans  at  Jacksonville — a  notable  company  of  typical  New 
Englanders,  sturdy  in  frame,  and  carrying  big  heads  on 
their  broad  shoulders — who  had  come  from  all  parts  of 
Florida  to  do  honor  to  their  common  mother.  Of  course, 
as  is  usual  on  such  occasions,  there  had  to  be  a  good  deal 
of  talking,  in  which  many  took  part,  I  among  the  rest. 


IS  A  NOTABLE  CELEBRATION. 

Though  what  I  said  was  of  no  great  importance,  it  seemed 
to  please  "  the  boys."  That  was  not  difficult :  for  when  a 
company  are  in  a  mood  to  be  pleased,  it  is  easy  to  please 
them.  As  we  were  all  "  of  the  family,"  it  was  natural  that 
they  should  respond  to  allusions  to  the  Old  Home.  There 
was  another  tender  chord,  in  the  experience  of  Jackson- 
ville the  previous  Summer,  which  responded  to  whatever 
recalled  that  terrible  calamity.  For  the  sake  of  the  kindly 
associations  of  the  hour,  and  in  the  hope  that  it  may  touch 
a  chord  in  the  hearts  of  other  "  old  boys,"  I  reprint  a  part 
of  what  I  said  to  those  at  Jacksonville  :  for  I  am  sure  that 
the  sons  of  New  England,  wherever  they  may  be,  in  what- 
ever new  homes  they  have  found  in  the  South  or  West, 
will  always  welcome  that  which  reminds  them  of  the  dear 
old  hills  and  valleys  among  which  they  were  born.  And 
after  this  manner  I  spake  : 

This  is  a  gathering  of  the  sons  of  New  England,  who, 
though  they  have  removed  far  away  from  it,  yet  do  not 
forget  the  place  of  their  birth,  and  come  together  once  a 
year  to  revive  the  recollections  of  the  Old  Home.  We  are 
met  to  keep  an  old-fashioned  Thanksgiving,  and  now  that 
we  have  partaken  of  the  feast,  we  may  imagine  ourselves 
gathered  round  one  of  those  huge  fireplaces  that  some  of 
us  remember  ;  piled  high  with  hickory  logs,  and  as  the 
flames  roar  up  the  chimney,  and  the  firelight  shines  in  the 
familiar  faces,  we  talk  of  old  times  and  old  friends,  the 
living  and  the  dead.  <^^^^^ 

It  is  not  that  New  England  is  better  than  any  other 
place  on  the  face  of  the  earth  (though  about  that  we  have 
our  private  opinion),  but  she  is  Our  Mother :  she  rocked 
us  in  our  cradles  ;  she  formed  in  us  the  principles  and  the 
habits  to  which  we  owe  whatever  of  success  we  have  had 
in  life  ;  and  we  should  be  unworthy  of  her,  if  we  did  not 
remember  her  with  filial  affection,  reverence,  and  honor. 


NEW  ENGLAND  IN  WINTER  AND  SPRING.  19 

The  country  itself  is  not  attractive,  at  least  not  at  this 
season  of  the  year,  in  the  depth  of  Winter.  If  we  could 
transport  ourselves  there  to-night,  what  should  we  see? 
Not  the  orange  groves  of  Florida,  but  only  naked  trees, 
with  branches  all  stripped  and  bare,  while  hills  and  valleys 
are  buried  in  snow.  And  yet  a  New  England  Winter  is 
not  without  its  attractions.  Ev^n  in  the  storm-blast  there 
is  something  which  rouses  the  manhood  in  our  breasts, 
and  causes  the  blood  to  course  quicker  in  our  veins.  Who 
of  us  cannot  say  with  Burns  : 

**  E'en  Winter  bleak  has  charms  to  me, 
When  winds  rave  through  the  naked  tree, 
And  frosts  on  hills  of  Ochiltree 

Are  hoary  gray ; 
Or  blinding  drifts  wild  furious  flee 

Darkening  the  day." 

The  pleasures  of  Winter  are  not  to  be  despised.  How  I 
wish  I  could  hear  at  this  moment  the  jingle  of  the  sleigh- 
bells,  and  the  merry  laugh  and  song  of  the  boys  and  girls 
as  they  ride  home  in  the  moonlight ! 

But  it  is  in  the  Spring-time  that  New  England  puts  on 
her  robe  of  beauty  :  when,  after  the  long  sleep  of  Winter, 
the  life  of  nature  returns,  as  our  little  friends  the  robins 
come  back ;  the  tender  grass  begins  to  appear,  and  the 
trees  put  forth  their  leaves  ;  the  apple  blossoms  fill  the  air 
with  fragrance  ;  and  the  verdure  from  the  meadows  along 
the  river's  banks  creeps  up  the  hillsides,  till  the  foliage  of 
the  oaks  and  the  birches  and  the  chestnuts,  mingled  with 
the  evergreen  of  the  pines  and  the  hemlocks,  makes  the 
full  glory  of  the  forest,  and  the  mountains  shake  like 
Lebanon. 

In  these  green  valleys  and  under  the  shadow  of  these 
mountains,  have  sprung  up  villages  of  a  peculiar  type — 
not  centering  in  some  lordly  pile,  as  an  English  village 


80  A  NEW  ENGLAND  VILLAGE. 

gathers  round  a  nobleman's  castle — with  no  great  man- 
sions, but  a  general  air  of  comfort  and  modest  beauty. 
If  I  were  to  take  one  village  as  a  sample  of  many,  it  would 
be  the  one  I  know  best,  that  in  which  I  was  bom,  in  West- 
ern Massachusetts,  in  the  Berkshire  Hills — Stockbridge — 
a  village  not  laid  out  in  the  EngUsh  style,  nor  the  French 
style,  nor  in  any  other  "  style,"  except  the  good  old-fash- 
ioned New  England  style  ;  having  one  broad  street  lined 
with  elms,  whose  giant  branches,  reaching  high  in  air  and 
drooping  towards  each  other,  form  an  arch  like  that  of  a 
cathedral,  which,  when  lighted  up  by  the  setting  sun,  is 
more  glorious  than  the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey. 
.  Along  this  street,  under  these  elms,  are  scattered  homes, 
not  pretentious  in  any  way,  but  each  with  its  smooth-shaven 
lawn,  its  grass  and  its  flowers  without,  and  its  books  and 
pictures  within,  which  show  it  to  be  the  home  of  taste  and 
refinement. 

If  there  were  time  to  dwell  on  these  home  pictures,  I 
might  take  you  over  the  town,  to  the  farm-houses,  with 
capacious  barns,  and  other  signs  of  abundance,  in  front  of 
which  the  spacious  foreground  is  overhung  by  trees,  and 
graced  by 

"The  moss-covered  bucket  that  hangs  in  the  well." 

Next  to  the  homes  of  the  New  England  village  are  its 
institutions,  around  which  its  life  gathers.  Of  these  there 
are  two,  the  church  and  the  school.  You  see  the  little 
schoolhouse  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  or  it  may  be  under  the 
shade  of  an  elm  :  how  modest  it  looks !  But  in  many  a 
New  England  village  that  was  the  only  "institution  of 
learning;"  Yet  out  of  that  humble  door  have  gone  the 
men  that  have  led  your  armies,  that  have  fought  your 
battles  and  ruled  your  Government.  The  schoolhouses 
of  New  England  have  made  its  people  the  equal  in  intel- 
ligence of  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 


THE  OLD  MEETING-HOUSE.  81 

Yet  tlie  sclioolhouse  would  not  have  amounted  to  so 
much,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  motherly  old  "  Meeting- 
house," that  stood  on  the  village  green,  which  was  the  edu- 
cator of  the  people  in  moral  and  religious  truth,  as  the 
school  taught  them  the  rudiments  of  knowledge.  What 
an  awe  fell  upon  my  childish  heart  as  I  looked  up  at  the 
steeple  from  which  the  bell  called  us  to  the  place  of  prayer ! 
As  a  boy  I  often  wandered  about  the  old  graveyard,  where 

*'  The  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep  " ; 

and  if  at  that  moment  the  old  sexton  struck  the  bell  for 
some  approaching  funeral,  that  solemn  toll  struck  upon 
my  heart  as  if  it  were  a  warning  sound  from  eternity 
itself. 

Within  the  old  meeting-house  our  associations  are  of  a 
mingled  character  :  grave  and  solemn,  with  observations 
of  manners  and  customs  that  were  quaint  and  curious, 
some  of  which  may  even  provoke  a  smile.  The  high  pulpit 
was  at  one  end  of  the  church,  and  the  gallery  at  the  other, 
in  which  the  choir  stood  facing  the  minister,  as  if  deter- 
mined to  keep  up  theii'  end  of  the  house,  and  do  their  full 
part  in  public  worship.  In  those  days  we  did  not  have  a 
fashionable  quartette,  but  pure  home  talent,  in  which  the 
"  spruce  "  young  men  of  the  village  showed  themselves 
beside  the  comely  maidens.  In  our  village  church,  in  the 
centre  of  the  choir  stood  a  man  six  feet  high  (I  say  six  ;  it 
might  have  been  seven  or  eight — to  my  childish  imagina- 
tion he  seemed  to  be  ten  or  twelve),  whose  "  front  view  " 
was  made  still  more  striking  by  a  tremendous  nose.  As 
he  rose  in  his  full  proportions,  he  lifted  up  with  him  a  bass 
viol  as  big  as  himself,  out  of  which  he  ground  unearthly 
music.  The  sight  was  so  awe-inspiring,  that  I  had  to  turn 
aside  my  eyes  to  rest  them  on  the  gentle  Priscillas  at  his 
side.     The  Lord  wiU  forgive  me  in  the  circumstances.    In 


82  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  LORD. 

truth,  I  did  not  look  upon  those  faces  as  I  might  if  I  had 
seen  them  on  the  street,  lighted  up  with  smiles.  I  regard- 
ed them  only  with  what  President  Edwards  calls  "  the  love 
of  complacency,"  which  he  approves  and  commends  as  "  a 
very  sweet  affection  "  (he  is  certainly  right  in  that),  and 
also  very  pure  and  holy,  if  it  be  not  indeed  the  essence  of 
all  virtue ! 

But  if  anybody  imagines  that  the  Sabbath  worship  was 
merely  an  occasion  for  mutual  observation,  he  is  greatly 
mistaken  ;  the  old  meeting-house  was  truly  a  solemn  place, 
as  the  house  of  God  ought  to  be  :  where  all  that  was  evil 
in  us  was  rebuked,  and  all  that  was  best  was  awakened  to 
a  new  life  ;  where  heads  were  bent  low,  and  tears  fell  from 
weeping  eyes  ;  and  as  we  mourned  over  all  that  was  wrong 
in  the  past,  we  resolved  to  live  better  in  the  future,  and 
our  solemn  vows  were  mingled  with  humble  prayers. 

Then  as  we  raised  our  bended  heads  and  down-cast 
eyes  to  the  pulpit,  we  listened  to  him  who  spoke  as  a 
messenger  from  above.  I  have  stood  upon  the  top  of 
Mount  Sinai,  where  God  gave  the  law  to  men  ;  but  God 
never  came  so  near  to  me  as  when  He  spoke,  not  by  the 
lips  of  Moses,  but  of  one  to  whom  I  looked  up  with  far 
more  reverence  than  I  did  to  Moses,  because  he  spoke  not 
only  with  authority,  but  with  that  love  which  gives  to 
authority  its  highest  power.  •  How  can  I  ever  spe-ak,  or 
think  as  I  ought,  of  that  white  haired  patriarch  who  taught 
me  the  way  of  life,  and  of  whom,  as  he  went  up  out  of  our 
sight,  I  could  only  exclaim,  "My  Father!  My  Father! 
The  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof !  "  We 
shall  see  him  no  more,  and  yet  we  mourn  not,  since  we 
think  of  him  now  as  having  passed  into  the  highest 
heavens,  where  he  is  without  fault  before  the  throne  of 
God! 

Nor  was  the  religion  of  New  England  merely  inculcat- 


FAMILY  PRAYERS.  83 

ed  in  public  ;  it  entered  into  the  families  of  the  people, 
and  was  a  part  of  their  daily  life.  How  well  do  I  remem- 
ber the  morning  and  evening  prayers!  In  my  father's 
family  we  read  the  Bible  through  in  course,  beginning 
with  Genesis,  and  going  straight  through  to  Revelation. 
We  knew  all  the  generations  from  Adam.  We  had  as 
clear  an  idea  of  the  geography 'of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  as 
we  had  of  our  own  village.  Did  we  not  have  a  map  of  it 
in  the  old  Family  Bible,  with  the  four  rivers  running  out 
of  it  at  right  angles!  About  that  household  worship 
linger  sweet  and  blessed  memories.  I  had  a  sister  with  a 
gentle  voice,  who  at  our  morning  prayers  often  sang : 

Early,  my  God,  without  delay, 
I  haste  to  seek  Thy  face ; 
and  at  evening, 

Glory  to  Thee,  my  God,  this  night, 
For  all  the  blessings  of  the  light ; 
Keep  me,  O  keep  me,  King  of  kings, 
Beneath  the  shadow  of  Thy  wings. 

Her  voice  thrills  me  even  now,  though  I  hear  it  only  dying 
away  in  the  distance,  as  she  long  since  passed  within  the 
heavenly  gates. 

Pardon  these  personal  allusions.  But  in  the  associa- 
tions that  are  brought  back  to-night,  thoughts  of  the  hving 
are  mingled  with  memories  of  the  dead,  memories  which 
it  is  good  to  recall,  as  they  will  help  us  to  live  and  to  die. 
That  morning  and  evening  worship  was  repeated  in  ten 
thousand  homes,  as  the  Cotter's  Saturday  Night  was  repeat- 
ed in  the  homes  of  Scotland  ;  and  if 

"  From  scenes  like  these  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs, 
That  makes  her  loved  at  home,  revered  abroad," 

not  less  is  it  true  of  our  dear  New  England. 

Of  what  that  North  country  has  been  and  has  done  in 
our  national  history,  I  will  not  speak.  .  As  Mr.  Webster 


84  THE  NEW  HOME. 

once  said  on  a  memorable  occasion  of  Massachusetts  : 
"  There  she  is ;  behold  her,  and  judge  for  yourselves ! 
The  bones  of  her  sons,  fallen  in  the  great  struggle  for 
independence,  lie  mingled  with  the  soil  of  every  State, 
from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  there  they  will  lie  forever." 

Such  is  New  England,  and  such  the  inheritance  which 
she  has  left  to  her  children. 

Having  thus  spoken  of  the  Old  Home,  may  I  say  a  few 
words  of  the  New  One  ?  Though  we  meet  to-night  as 
sons  of  New  England,  we  are  not  in  New  England,  but  a 
thousand  miles  away.  Yet  we  do  not  feel  that  we  are 
strangers  here,  who  must,  like  the  captives  in  Babylon, 
hang  our  harps  upon  the  willows,  saying  "How  can  we 
sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land  ?  "  We  are  still  at 
home,  in  the  same  country,  under  the  same  flag,  and 
among  those  who  are  our  countrymen  and  brothers. 

I  have  no  wish  to  revive  painful  recollections  :  indeed 
they  cease  to  be  painful  when  we  come  to  recognize  the 
hand  of  God  in  a  bitter  experience,  leading  us  on  to  an 
end  better  than  we  knew.  The  great  Civil  War,  which 
covered  our  land  with  mourning  and  woe,  accomplished 
for  us  in  four  years  what  could  not  have  been  accomphsh- 
ed  in  a  hundred  years  of  peace.  It  removed  the  one  great 
bar  to  a  perfect  union,  and  made  us  know  each  other  as 
never  before.  Hatred  between  nations,  as  between  indi- 
viduals, is  often  born  of  ignorance.  The  Germans  and 
the  French  hate  each  other,  because  they  are  rival  powers 
and  have  had  many  wars,  but  this  hatred  would  die  out, 
were  it  not  that  they  live  in  different  countries  and  speak 
different  languages,  so  that  they  cannot  have  that  free 
communion  with  each  other,  that  would  exist  between 
those  of  the  same  race  and  speech,  passing  to  and  fro, 
from  city  to  city.  So  in  this  country — the  North  and  the 
South  were  long  separated  by  great  distances  as  well  as 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  COMING  TOGETHER.     85 

by  different  institutions.  Now,  it  may  seem  strange  for  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel  to  say  it,  but  it  is  the  sober  truth 
of  history,  that  nothing  promotes  acquaintance  so  much 
as  war.  Soldiers  who  meet  face  to  face  do  not  need  any 
formal  introduction  :  they  do  not  stand  on  ceremony,  but 
at  once  present  their  salutations,  and  in  an  hour  they  are 
better  acquainted  than  they  would  be  in  years  standing 
aloof  and  indulging  in  mutual  recriminations.  StiU  further, 
men  who  have  fought  each  other  generally  have  an  immense 
respect  for  each  other.  And  while  respect  is  not  love,  yet 
it  is  an  essential  element  in  an  attachment  that  is  to  be 
strong  and  permanent.  And  so  it  is  that  good  often  comes 
out  of  evil,  and  peace  is  established  by  war  :  "  Out  of  the 
lion  Cometh  forth  meat,  and  out  of  the  strong  cometh  forth 
sweetness." 

The  truth  of  this  was  never  more  fully  illustrated  than 
in  the  result  of  our  late  war,  by  which  we  have  not  only 
kept  the  old  union,  but  established  a  still  better  one — one 
that  I  believe  wiU  last  forever.  This  is  the  third  time  that 
I  have  come  South  within  a  few  years,  and  it  has  been  with 
increasing  satisfaction  that  I  have  observed  how  old  preju- 
dices were  dying  out,  and  those  long  divided  by  ignorance 
of  each  other,  were  coming  to  know  each  other  better,  and 
to  feel  a  genuine  mutual  respect. 

In  addition  to  this  general  reflow  of  fraternal  feeling, 
the  people  of  this  city,  more  than  of  almost  any  other  in 
our  country,  have  been  drawn  together  during  the  past 
year  by  common  trials  and  common  sufferings.  For 
months  there  was  no  place  which  was  the  object  of  such 
constant  and  painful  interest.  I  see  across  the  table  a 
gentleman  who  stood  at  his  post  here  through  all  that 
dreadful  time  (I  am  proud  to  say  that  he  is  a  brother- 
editor),  and  sent  daily  messages  to  the  North  of  the  rav- 
ages of  the  destroyer.     He  can  hardly  realize  what  min- 


86     THE  YELLOW  FEVER  IN  JACKSONVILLE. 

gled  feelings  of  terror  and  pity  and  sympathy  those  tidings 
created.  Jacksonville  seemed  to  us  like  a  besieged  ciij,  in 
whicli  your  people  were  fighting  with  sickness  and  death. 
Nothing  tries  human  courage  and  endurance  so  much  as 
this  daily  hand-to-hand  fight  with  an  enemy,  not  without 
but  within  your  gates — an  enemy  all  the  more  terrible 
because  it  is  invisible  ;  because  it  walketh  in  darkness  and 
wasteth  at  noonday. 

You  have  read  the  story  of  the  siege  of  Lucknow  :  and 
remember  how  it  dragged  on  for  months,  the  enemy  all 
the  while  coming  nearer  and  nearer,  and  the  defenders 
growing  fewer  and  fewer.  Still  they  only  closed  up  their 
ranks,  and  stood  at  their  posts — men,  and  women  too,  all 
involved  in  one  common  suffering,  some  dying  every  day, 
but  with  their  last  breath  animating  their  survivors. 

You  in  Jacksonville  have  been  through  somewhat  the 
same  experience.  Month  after  month  the  pestilence  was 
never  for  a  single  moment  out  of  your  thoughts.  Day 
after  day  those  whom  you  had  seen  in  robust  health  were 
carried  to  their  long  home,  and  the  mourners  went  about 
the  streets.  The  strain  of  such  prolonged  anxiety  must 
have  been  terrible.  How  bravely  it  was  borne,  you  best 
know.  Some  of  your  foremost  citizens — those  who  could 
least  be  spared — sacrificed  their  lives  to  save  yours.  In 
an  address  delivered  here  only  day  before  yesterday,  at 
the  reopening  of  your  Sub-Tropical  Exposition,  I  find  the 
following  allusion  to  one  who  at  the  first  opening  intro- 
duced the  President  of  the  United  States  :  "  You  aU 
remember  that  the  Chief  Magistrate  was  introduced  by  a 
'  man  the  memory  of  whose  unselfish  life  is  a  heritage 
beyond  price — God's  nobleman  and  our  martyr — James 
Jacquelin  Daniel."  As  I  read  this,  my  thoughts  went 
back  to  Lucknow  and  to  one  who  perished  there.  Sir 
Henry  Lawrence,  the   commander,  exposing  himself  too 


LESSON  OF  THE  PESTILENCE.  <        87 

bravely,  was  struck  by  a  sbell,  and  covering  his  uniform 
that  the  soldiers  might  not  know  their  terrible  loss,  was 
carried  away  to  die.  Like  Havelock,  he  was  a  Christian 
soldier,  and  partook  of  the  communion,  and  asked  that  no 
eulogy  should  be  inscribed  upon  his  tomb,  bat  simply 
these  words  :  "  Here  lies  Henry  Lawrence,  who  tried  to  do 
his  duty  :  may  God  have  mercy  on  his  soul !  " .  With  equal 
truth  might  these  words  (which,  simple  as  they  are,  com- 
prehend everything)  be  written  over  the  grave  of  your 
mart}T  :  "  Here  lies  one  who  tried  to  do  his  duty !  " 

These  sacrifices  have  not  been  in  vain,  if  they  teach  a 
lesson  to  those  who  survive.  They  should  not  be  forgot- 
ten, for  the  memory  wiU  be  an  inspiration  to  you  and  to 
those  that  come  after  you,  to  meet  whatever  trials  may  be 
in  store  for  you  in  the  future.  Those  trials  may  not  come 
in  the  form  of  pestilence  ;  they  may  come  in  flames,  which 
may  lay  a  part  of  your  city  in  ashes.  But  no  matter  what 
may  be,  nor  how  it  may  come,  it  will  never  be  irretrieva- 
ble if  you  stand  together,  thinking  only  of  the  common 
safety,  and  meet  danger  with  that  presence  of  mind,  that 
calmness  and  resolution,  of  which  men  of  your  own  city 
have  given  such  splendid  examples. 

But  while  we  recall  this  great  calamity,  it  is  gratifying 
to  see  how  quickly  and  completely  you  have  recovered 
from  it.  If  we  had  not  had  such  full  details  in  our  North- 
ern papers  in  the  daily  despatches  from  Jacksonville,  we 
could  not  believe  that  it  had  passed  through  such  a  bitter 
experience.  But  abeady  trade  has  revived,  and  business 
goes  on  as  before,  giving  signs  to  the  stranger  of  what  I 
hear  from  many  quarters,  that  this  is  to  be  the  great  com- 
mercial city  of  the  South  Atlantic  coast,  taking  the  place 
formerly  held  by  Charleston  and  Savannah. 

If  you  would  allow  me,  as  an  outsider,  to  express  an 
opinion,  it  would  be  that  this  prosperity  has  been  greatly 


88  NEW  ENGLANDERS  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

promoted  by  the  complete  fusion  of  the  North  and  the 
South.  I  see  here  on  every  side  the  signs  that  Northern 
capital  and  Northern  enterprise  have  come  among  you, 
and  come  to  stay.  But  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  that 
this  was  to  be  a  Northern  city  in  any  exclusive  sense.  It 
is  Southern  by  latitude,  by  climate,  and  by  population,  and 
such  it  must  remain,  only  deriving  additional  strength 
from  the  infusion  of  another  element,  the  mingling  of 
Northern  and  Southern  blood. 

In  this  beautiful  city  of  the  South,  you,  sons  of  New 
England,  have  fixed  your  home.  You  are  not  aliens  here, 
but  fellow-citizens  with  your  Southern  brethren  of  this 
goodly  Commonwealth.  You  will  be  none  the  less  so  for 
remembering  where  you  were  born,  and  cherishing  the 
principles  and  the  habits  which  you  learned  fi*om  your 
fathers  :  industry,  integrity,  fidelity  ;  and  that  fear  of 
Almighty  God  which  becomes  the  descendants  of  the 
Puritans.  Brothers  !  you  who  have  come  from  Maine  and 
Massachusetts  ;  from  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont 
and  the  White  Hills  of  New  Hampshire  ;  from  the  valleys 
of  Connecticut  and  the  rocky  shores  of  Rhode  Island  :  you 
are  heirs  to  a  great  inheritance — the  inheritance  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  honor  and  glory.  Keep  that 
honor  unstained !  "Wherever  your  lot  may  be  cast,  in  the 
North  or  in  the  South,  or  in  the  mighty  West,  let  the  sons 
of  New  England  show  that  they  are  not  unworthy  of  their 
glorious  Mother. 


CHAPTER  Vn. 
NORTHERN  FLORIDA. 

I  felt  a  real  sinking  of  the  heart  when  it  came  to  saying 
good-bye  to  St.  Augustine.  For  seven  weeks  (except  the 
interval  of  the  excursion  to  Jupiter  Inlet,  and  a  longer 
visit  to  Havana)  it  had  been  my  home.  Never  have  I  been 
in  a  more  restful  spot.  Coming  from  the  incessant  roar 
of  city  streets,  the  change  was  as  great  as  if  I  had  been 
transported  to  some  mountain  top,  or  to  some  deep  valley 
in  the  Alps,  where  the  sounds  of  the  busy  world  could  not 
reach  me,  and  I  could  quietly  gather  strength  for  the  open- 
ing year. 

But  all  its  pleasures  come  to  an  end  as  the  stalwart 
porter — a  man  of  mighty  physique  and  stentorian  voice — 
comes  up  into  the  Rotunda,  and  cries  in  a  tone  that  rings 
through  the  halls,  "AU  on  board  for  Jacksonville  !  "  Re- 
luctantly we  vanish  from  the  scene,  and  as  we  roll  under 
the  arches  and  over  the  smooth  road  to  the  new  Union 
Depot,  we  keep  looking  back  to  the  Spanish  towers  of  the 
Ponce  de  Leon,  under  the  shadow  of  which  we  have  passed 
so  many  weeks  of  rest  and  of  happiness. 

It  softened  a  little  the  pain  of  departure,  that  I  could 
make  the  first  stage  of  my  homeward  journey  a  short  one, 


90  THE   BEAUTY  OF  JACKSONVILLE. 

and  stop  at  Jacksonville,  and  spend  an  evening  witli  tlie 
friends  who  had  invited  me  to  make  the  trip  with  them 
to  Jupiter  Inlet.  We  met  as  brave  companions-in-arms, 
and  as  we  sat  round  the  table,  we  recalled  our  thrilling 
experiences  by  flood  and  field,  and  fought  our  battles  over 
again  in  the  most  approved  style  of  old  soldiers. 

When  I  first  saw  Jacksonville,  it  was  only  to  pass 
through  it  from  one  end  of  the  main  street  to  the  other, 
which  I  supposed  to  be  the  whole  town  ;  and  I  thought 
that,  though  it  might  be  called  in  Western  or  Southern 
phrase,  "  a  right  smart  chance  of  a  place,"  it  was  not  very 
picturesque  nor  attractive  in  any  way.  It  was  not  till  I 
came  again  for  the  New  England  dinner,  and  spent  a  day, 
that  I  got  any  idea  either  of  its  extent  or  its  beauty.  But 
when  it  came  to  a  drive  of  several  hours,  I  found  the  place 
expanding  in  every  direction  ;  and  that  the  business  por- 
tion, instead  of  being  confined  to  one  street,  overflowed 
into  many,  in  which  the  shops  and  stores  and  markets,  the 
railway  stations  and  landing  places,  had  an  air  of  busy, 
bustling  activity,  not  common  in  a  Southern  town.  A 
stately  ship,  just  coming  up  the  river,  reminded  us  that 
this  was  a  seaport,  and  had  connection  with  all  the  cities 
on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  Miss  Thursby,  whom  I  met  at  St. 
Augustine,  told  me  that  she  had  never  had  a  more  delight- 
ful voyage  than  that  from  New  York  to  Jacksonville.  The 
Sub4ropical  Exposition,  inaugurated  last  year  by  Presi- 
dent Cleveland,  but  broken  up  by  the  yellow  fever,  had 
been  recently  reopened — an  event  which  was  welcomed  by 
the  people  as  a  good  omen,  it  being  interpreted  as  a  sign 
of  the  revival  of  general  prosperity. 

The  city  is  well  laid  out,  having  as  a  centre  a  square, 
on  which  are  two  fine  hotels  ;  and  the  wide  streets,  along 
which  they  have  begun  to  plant  trees,  are  adorned  with 
many  beautiful  residences.    The  ground  already  built  over. 


ON  THE  BANK  OF  THE  ST.  JOHN^S.  91 

must  be  two  or  three  square  miles  in  extent.  Nor  is 
this  all  that  is  available  for  a  city.  Behind  it  is  a  large 
plateau,  elevated  above  the  river  sufiuciently  to  furnish 
perfect  drainage,  now  covered  with  pine  woods,  but  where 
in  the  future  I  see  in  imagination  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  suburban  homes,  such  as  now  line  all  the  roads 
radiating  from  that  most  beautiful  city  of  the  west,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio.  In  truth,  Jacksonville  reminds  me  of  what 
Cleveland  was  when  I  first  saw  it,  forty  years  ago ;  and 
suggests  the  pleasant  anticipation  that  what  Cleveland  is 
to-day,  Jacksonville  may  be  in  forty  years  to  come  :  her 
own  enthusiastic  people  would  probably  say,  in  haH  that 
time. 

Eeturning  from  this  plateau,  we  drove  for  a  couple  of 
miles  along  the  bank  of  the  St.  John's,  where  at  intervals 
are  spacious  dwellings,  half  hidden  from  view  by  the  shade 
of  trees,  and  that  on  the  other  side  look  out  upon  the 
broad  surface  of  this  noble  river,  the  sight  of  "  a  busy  city 
far  away"  only  adding  to  the  sense  of  perfect  seclusion. 
I  did  not  wonder  that  Mrs.  Stowe  had  pitched  her  tent  a 
few  miles  to  the  south  of  this,  at  Mandarin,  where  under 
the  overhanging  boughs,  she  could  enjoy  to  the  full  the 
solemn  stillness,  the  whispering  winds,  and  all  the  majesty 
and  inspiration  of  a  forest  home. 

When  I  left  Jacksonville  the  next  morning,  it  was  not 
to  take  a  course  directly  north,  but  west,  which  took  me 
through  Northern  Florida,  a  portion  of  the  State  that  has 
a  character  of  its  own.  Southern  Florida,  all  of  which  is 
in  the  peninsula,  is  as  flat  as  if  it  had  but  just  risen  from 
the  ocean  bed,  but  here  the  country  rises  in  gentle  undula- 
tions, like  the  rolling  prairies  of  the  West.  The  vegetation 
also  changes  :  instead  of  endless  pine  barrens,  the  trees 
are  at  once  larger  and  more  varied,  reminding  one  of  the 
oak  openings  of  IMichigan.     There  are  also  signs  of  activity 


92  OLD  PLANTATION  MELODIES  DYING  OUT. 

along  the  road,  more  frequent  than  in  the  farther  South. 
Villages  are  sprinkled  in  the  woods,  and  now  and  then  the 
welcome  sound  of  a  saw-mill  mingles  with  the  rushing  of 
a  stream.  I  was  not  looking  out  for  streams,  for  I  was 
not  making  a  study  of  geography;  and  perhaps  my  readers 
wiU  smile  when  I  tell  them  that  the  only  one  which  I  asked 
to  have  pointed  out  to  me,  was  the  Suwanee  river.  It  is 
not  much  of  a  river,  and  as  it  glides  away  under  the  trees 
along  its  banks,  it  seems  to  be  hiding  from  sight.  But 
even  the  glimpse  cf  it  as  the  train  rushed  over  the  bridge, 
set  me  to  humming  to  myself  : 

"  'Way  down  on  de  S'wanee  river, 
Far,  far  away — 
Dere's  where  my  heart  is  turning  ebber ; 
Dere's  where  de  old  folks  stay." 

This  is  one  of  the  most  popular  songs  in  the  world. 
Years  ago  it  was  said  that  half  a  million  copies  of  it  had 
been  sold.  It  is  the  echo  of  the  old  plantation  melodies, 
though  the  words  and  the  music  were  by  a  Northern  com- 
poser. Yet  he  must  have  made  a  study  of  the  native  songs, 
till  he  caught  their  peculiar  rhythm  and  was  infused  with 
their  spirit.  "What  a  pity  that  these  old  melodies,  that 
charmed  a  past  generation,  are  dying  out !  It  may  be  said 
that  they  are  "  slave  songs,"  which  were  born  of  a  state 
of  servitude,  and  that  now  the  negroes  are  free,  we  can- 
not expect  them  any  longer  to  sing  the  songs  of  their 
captivity.  This  may  be  one  reason,  and  yet  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  there  is  another  still  more  potent,  viz  :  that 
they  are  ashamed  of  them,  as  if  they  were  reminders  of 
their  old  state  of  bondage. 

The  evening  before  I  left  St.  Augustine,  there  was  a 
gathering  of  the  colored  people  in  the  Opera  House,  which 
was  chosen  as  the  only  building  in  the  town  large  enough 
to  hold  them.     As  I  sat  on  the  platform,  between  the 


TALLAHASSEE.  93 

principal  speaker  and  Dr.  Paxton  of  New  York,  and  looked 
over  the  assembled  multitude,  it  was  a  stirring  scene.  The 
choir,  composed  wholly  of  colored  singers,  sang  a  number 
of  pieces,  and  sang  well,  as  such  singers  always  do,  for 
they  have  an  instinct  of  melody  ;  and  yet  I  felt  a  disap- 
pointment, and  said  to  the  leader,  "  Why  did  you  not  sing 
some  of  the  old  plantation  melodies?"  "Because,"  he 
answered,  "I  thought  I  would  educate  my  people  to  some- 
thing higher !  "  That  tells  the  whole  story.  It  is  in  the 
effort  to  rise  to  "  something  higher,"  that  they  have  lost 
what  gave  their  songs  such  a  wonderful  pathos  and  power. 
The  feeling  may  be  a  natural  one,  but  the  result  is  to  be 
lamented,  for  so  perishes  what  we  would  not  willingly  let 
die.  These  songs  have  still  a  place  in  a  world  that  is  full 
of  breaking  hearts.  Slavery  is  dead,  but  sorrow  is  not 
dead,  and  the  time  has  not  yet  come,  and  perhaps  never 
will  come,  when  mourning  hearts  will  not  need  to  sing 

*«  Nobody  knows  the  sorrows  I've  seen, 
Nobody  knows  but  Jesus," 
and 

*'  Keep  me  from  sinking  down," 

At  two  o'clock  we  came  to  a  city  set  on  a  hill.  Not  a 
very  high  hill,  to  be  sure,  but  one  that  it  was  refreshing  to 
see  after  so  long  dwelling  on  the  plains.  This  was  Talla- 
hassee, the  capital  of  Florida,  a  city  which,  compared  with 
the  new  towns  that  have  sprung  up  here  and  there,  is 
quite  venerable,  and  was  in  the  former  days  a  home  of  the 
Southern  aristocracy,  and  that  still  has  many  old  families, 
which,  though  reduced  in  wealth,  retain  that  dignity  and 
courtesy  of  manners,  which  was  the  most  attractive  feature 
of  the  olden  time.  It  is  still  one  of  the  most  charming 
towns  in  the  South. 

Biding  over  the  hills,  through  long  streets,  past  the 
Capitol  (in  which  the  Legislature  meets  for  a  few  months 


94  THE  GRAVE  OF  ACHILLE  MURAT. 

of  the  year,  when  the  town  is  filled  with  the  atmosphere  of 
pohtics),  we  come  to  the  Leon  Hotel — so  named  from  the 
county  in  which  it  is,  that  received  Us  name  at  the  first 
settlement  of  the  country,  when  it  was  christened  from 
the  province  of  Spain  that  was  united  with  Castile  hun- 
dreds of  years  ago. 

There  is  another  reminder  of  the  Old  World  in  the 
graveyard,  where,  beneath  a  modest  stone,  lies  the  body  of 
Achille  Murat.  What  a  story  is  told  in  the  name  graven 
on  that  monument!  He  who  lies  here  was  born  in  a 
palace,  the  son  of  that  fiery  soldier  whose  deeds  were 
known  on  every  battlefield  of  Europe,  and  of  CaroUne, 
sister  of  the  great  Napoleon.  Nephew  of  the  master  of 
France,  he  seemed  born  to  great  destinies.  His  father 
was  made  King  of  Naples,  where,  possessed  of  an  indepen- 
dent sovereignty,  he  thought  to  manage  his  little  kingdom 
in  his  own  way,  and  chafed  at  receiving  orders  from  Paris, 
to  the  indignation  of  his  Imperial  creator  ;  but  restraining 
his  own  impatience  for  a  time,  it  broke  out  after  the  triumph 
of  the  Allies  in  1814,  when  he  turned  against  his  former 
master,  who  was  so  angered  by  this  treachery  that  when 
he  returned  from  Elba,  he  would  not  receive  his  former 
Heutenant — a  degree  of  displeasure  which  cost  him  dear, 
for  with  Murat  (as  he  thought)  he  might  have  won  the 
battle  of  Waterloo.  "  It  needed  only,"  he  said,  "  to  break 
a  few  English  squares,  and  Murat  would  undoubtedly  have 
effected  that."  Meanwhile  the  latter  had  lost  his  throne, 
which  he  endeavored  to  recover  by  a  revolution  that  was 
immediately  suppressed,  and  he  was  shot. 

Then  the  several  branches  of  the  Napoleon  dynasty 
sought  a  refuge  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Joseph 
Bonaparte,  the  eldest  brother  of  Napoleon  and  former 
King  of  Spain,  came  to  the  United  States,  and  for  some 
years  lived  in    retirement  at  Bordentown,  New  Jersey  ; 


A  FRIEND  ON  AN  OLD  PLANTATION.  95 

while  the  son  of  Murat,  as  jet  hardly  grown  to  manhood, 
came  to  Florida  and  married  an  American  wife,  and  no 
doubt  was  happier  in  his  quiet  home  than  if  he  had  inherit- 
ed the  throne  of  the  two  Sicilies. 

After  the  restoration  of  the  Empire  under  Louis  Napo- 
leon, the  representatives  of  different  branches  of  the  family 
were  recalled  to  Paris,  and  shone  as  the  stars  of  the 
Imperial  Court.  But  Achille  Murat  was  in  his  grave. 
The  old  residents  of  Tallahassee  still  remember  him  as  the 
quiet  French  gentleman,  who  won  their  respect  and  their 
good  will  by  his  courtesy  ;  and  they  point  out  to  strangers 
the  mansion  on  yonder  hill  where  he  lived  with  his  true- 
heai'ted  American  wife,  who  wrote  the  touching  inscription 
on  his  tomb,  where  she  now  sleeps  beside  him. 

But  I  had  come  to  Tallahassee  chiefly  to  see  an  old 
friend,  Prof.  E.  Warren  Clark,  who  many  years  ago  wrote 
Letters  from  Japan,  when  that  country  was  less  known 
than  it  is  now.  I  did  not  see  him  in  Japan,  nor  become 
acquainted  with  him  till  after  his  return  to  America  ;  nor 
even  since  had  I  seen  him  often.  But  I  felt  such  genuine 
respect  for  him  as  one  of  the  pluckiest  men  I  had  ever 
known,  that,  although  it  was  nearly  two  hundred  miles  out 
of  my  way,  I  would  not  leave  the  South  without  seeing 
him.  Inquiring  for  him  I  found  that  he  was  living  on  a 
plantation  five  miles  from  the  city.  Asking  for  a  carriage 
to  take  me  there,  the  proprietor  of  the  Leon  kindly  o:Sered 
to  drive  me  himself  ;  so  that  I  had  not  only  his  spirited 
horses,  but  an  excellent  companion  and  guide.  It  was  a 
pleasant  afternoon,  and  the  new-plowed  furrows  in  the 
fields  lay  open  to  the  sun,  and  as  they  melted  under  the 
increasing  warmth,  gave  promise  of  an  early  Spring.  My 
friend,  coming  South  a  few  years  since  for  his  health,  had 
taken  an  old  plantation,  which  had  run  to  waste  after  the 
war,  but  which  he  had  set  to  work  with  his  usual  energy 


96  MAKING  A  STOUT  FIGHT. 

to  restore,  and  bring  into  cultivation.  The  place  was 
a  large  one,  comprising  several  hundred  acres  of  upland, 
dotted  over  with  grand  old  oaks,  and  looking  down  upon  a 
beautiful  lake,  across  which  the  hills  on  the  opposite  side 
cast  their  evening  shadows. 

But  he  had  no  end  of  troubles  to  encounter.  He  was 
attacked  with  chills,  which  would  have  shaken  the  life  out  of 
a  less  resolute  man  ;  while  he  daily  groaned  over  the  easy- 
going and  slow-moving  blacks,  who  would  wear  out  the 
patience  of  a  saint.  In  hearing  his  story,  I  could  not  but 
think  that  his  "  fight  of  afflictions "  was  greater  in  some 
respects  than  Paul's :  for  while  the  Apostle  had  to  fight 
with  beasts  at  Ephesus,  he  never  had  to  fight  with  the 
fever  and  ague ;  and  though  his  patience  was  tried  in 
dealing  with  all  sorts  of  "  unreasonable  men,"  he  had  not 
to  deal  with  the  Sambos  and  Topsys  of  an  old  plantation. 
However,  my  brave  friend  did  not  ask  pity  from  anybody, 
and  while  he  told  of  his  manifold  experiences,  laughed 
heartUy  over  them.  Fortunately  he  stays  here  but  a  part 
of  the  year.  His  family  are  settled  in  a  delightful  home  in 
Columbia,  Tennessee,  to  which  I  hope  he  will  be  able  to 
remove,  to  engage  in  that  varied  work,  as  teacher  and 
preacher  and  lecturer,  for  which  he  is  admirably  fitted. 

As  he  was  alone  except  with  his  workmen,  I  immedi- 
ately laid  hold  upon  him,  and  carried  him  off  captive  to 
Tallahassee  for  the  night.  A  pleasant  evening  it  was  in 
the  spacious  parlors  of  the  Leon  Hotel,  before  the  blazing 
fire,  where  were  many  visitors  from  the  North,  among 
whom  we  found,  as  usual,  the  three  Cs — Cincinnati,  Cleve- 
land, and  Chicago — well  represented  ;  while  in  our  private 
talks  we  went  back  in  memory  and  imagination  to  the 
happy  days  that  we  passed  in  the  Land  of  the  Bising  Sun. 


CHAPTER  VTEL 

"  MARCHING    THROUGH    GEORGIA." 

When  Sherman  made  his  famous  March  to  the  Sea,  the 
Boys  in  Blue  enlivened  their  "  tramp,  tramp,"  with  many 
a  song  as  well  as  story — songs  that  were  sung,  not  only  on 
the  march,  but  by  the  camp-fire,  and  echoed  far  and  wide 
through  the  dim  aisles  of  the  Southern  forest.  Of  these,  no 
one  was  more  popular  than  "  Marching  through  Georgia." 
I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  heard  it ;  if  I  have  I  did 
not  know  it  at  the  time,  as  I  could  not  even  now  tell  it 
from  "Dixie."  But  as  any  verse  of  the  Bible  may  serve 
for  a  text,  so  the  title  of  this  old  war-song  is  a  good 
enough  heading  for  the  wayside  observations  of  one  who 
has  been  lately  "  marching  through  Georgia,"  from  one 
end  to  the  other,  though  he  did  not  capture  anybody,  but 
on  the  contrary,  must  admit  (if  he  had  to  confess  the  truth) 
that  the  people  captured  him. 

I  "  invaded  "  the  State  from  the  south.  It  is  less  than 
thirty  miles  from  Tallahassee,  the  capital  of  Florida,  to 
ThomasviUe,  which  (to  keep  up  the  military  phrase)  was 
my  first  "strategic  point."  This  is  one  of  the  new  crea- 
tions of  the  New  South,  thr^t  has  sprung  up  in  the  pine 
woods.     Dr.  Metcalfe,  the  eminent  physician  of  New  York, 


98  GEORGIA  LARGER  THAN  NEW  YORK. 

"  discovered "  it  a  few  years  since,  and  finding  that  it 
combined  many  of  the  features  which  he  desired,  recom- 
mended it  to  his  patients  as  a  sanitarium  for  invalids,  from 
which  (as  is  often  the  case)  it  became  a  fashionable  resort 
for  a  great  many  besides,  chiefly  well-to-do  people  from 
Northern  cities,  who,  not  being  kept  at  home  by  business, 
sought  a  pleasant  retreat  from  the  severity  of  their  own 
climate.  It  has  no  great  attractions  of  scenery,  but  is  in  a 
rolling  and  well  wooded  country,  far  enough  away  from 
the  sea  to  escape  the  damp  air,  so  trying  to  weak  lungs. 
Here  a  number  of  fine  hotels  have  been  built  in  the  woods, 
where  one  sitting  on  a  broad  verandah,  may  not  only 
breathe  an  atmosphere  that  is  dry  and  pure,  but  inhale 
the  balmy  odors  of  the  forest.  I  am  not  surprised  to  find 
these  pleasant  camping  grounds  taken  possession  of  by 
large  colonies  of  Northerners,  who  swoop  down  on  them 
"like  the  wolf  on  the  fold" — a  class  of  "invaders,"  how- 
ever, more  welcome  than  the  soldiers  of  Sherman,  since, 
instead  of  coming  with  guns  in  their  hands,  they  bring  no 
other  weapon  than  the  gold  which  they  scatter  lavishly  in 
a  region  where  it  is  greatly  needed. 

One  has  hardly  an  idea  of  the  dimensions  of  Georgia, 
until  he  makes  a  journey  across  its  whole  length  or  breadth, 
as  it  stretches  one  way  nearly  five  degrees  of  latitude,  and 
the  other  as  many  of  longitude.  It  is  called  the  Empire 
State  of  the  South,  as  New  York  is  the .  Empire  State  of 
the  North  ;  but  this  does  it  injustice  as  to  its  magnitude, 
for  it  is  larger  in  territory  than  New  York  by  more  than 
ten  thousand  square  miles,  the  figures  being  for  New  York 
47,000  square  miles,  and  for  Georgia  58,0o0!  The  latter 
has  not  indeed  some  features  of  our  Northern  "  Empire," 
such  as  the  Great  Lakes  on  one  border,  and  the  mighty 
Port,  which  receives  the  commerce  of  all  parts  of  the 
world,  on  the  other  ;  yet  it  has  beauties  of  its  own.    If  it 


LINE  OF  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea.        99 

has  no  Alpine  heights  covered  with  eternal  snow,  like 
Mount  Hood,  or  other  peaks  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  it  has 
sufficient  variety  in  a  surface  which  stretches  from  the 
mountains  to  the  sea.  On  the  north,  the  great  Appalachian 
chain  (which,  coming  down  from  Virginia,  forms  the 
boundary  between  the  States  qn  its  eastern  and  its  west- 
ern slope,  having  the  Carolinas  on  the  one  hand,  and  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee  on  the  other)  at  last  looks  down  upon 
Georgia.  From  this  mountain  chain  the  Savannah  river, 
running  to  the  sea,  divides  Georgia  from  South  Carolina, 
while  the  Chattahoochee,  turning  southward  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  divides  it  from  Alabama.  Within  these  boun- 
daries of  nature  lies  the  broad  imperial  domain  of  a  State, 
in  which  there  are  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  counties,  and  which  has  three  millions  of  inhabit- 
ants. 

Central  Georgia  has  not  in  its  appearance  much  to 
attract  the  eye  of  a  stranger.  It  has  not  even  the  interest 
of  war,  for  Sherman's  march  from  Atlanta  was  to  the 
southeast,  in  the  general  direction  of  the  Savannah  river, 
though  often  at  a  long  distance  from  it.  The  country  is 
flat,  and  the  towns  have  a  rough  frontier  look,  like  the  new 
settlements  in  the  Territories  of  the  West.  Nowhere  does 
one  see  the  finished  beauty  of  our  New  England  villages. 
But  my  curiosity  is  always  piqued  to  observe  the  mixed 
population.  Some  travellers  note  peculiarities  of  Southern 
dialect,  but  I  do  not  see  that  they  are  greater  than  those 
at  the  North,  or  that  the  New  Englander  who  "  guesses," 
has  much  to  boast  over  the  Southerner  who  "reckons." 
The  negroes  are  a  source  of  infinite  amusement,  as  they 
swarm  around  every  railway  station,  as  if  they  had  nothing 
to  do  but  to  enjoy  this  idleness — always  happy,  as  they  are 
easily  pleased,  any  poor  joke  being  enough  to  set  them 
grinning  from  ear  to  ear. 


100  SOLDIER  AND  PREACHER. 

In  the  crowds  that  fill  the  trains — it  is  a  great  mystery 
to  me  where  they  aU  come  from  and  go  to — there  are 
many  strongly  marked  faces  of  men  whom  it  would  be  a 
pleasure  to  know.  Whenever  I  see  a  man  enter  the  car 
who  has  lost  an  arm  or  a  leg,  I  set  him  down  as  an  old 
soldier,  and  have  a  great  desire  to  take  a  seat  by  him, 
and  hear  him  fight  his  battles  over  again,  for,  strange  to 
say,  instead  of  being  full  of  bitterness,  and  cherishing  old 
animosities,  no  class  are  so  free  from  them  as  these  war- 
worn veterans. 

Among  these  was  a  man  of  fine  presence,  with  an  air 
half  military,  half  ministerial,  with  whom,  as  he  took  a 
seat  beside  me,  I  fell  in  conversation.  He  proved  to  be, 
as  I  had  thought,  an  old  soldier,  who,  when  he  laid  down 
his  arms,  took  to  preaching  the  Gospel.  Having  served 
in  the  army  of  the  Confederacy,  did  not  unfit  him  at  all  for 
serving  in  the  army  of  the  Lord.  On  the  contrary,  it 
rather  fitted  him  for  his  special  duty,  inasmuch  as  he  is 
now  a  presiding  elder  in  the  Methodist  Church — a  position 
in  which  he  has  at  once  to  command  and  to  obey.  I  have 
often  thought  that  a  little  of  this  military  discipline  would 
not  be  a  bad  thing  for  any  of  us,  ministers  or  laymen. 
We  talked  about  the  war  with  as  much  freedom  as  about 
poHtics  or  churches.  As  a  soldier  he  had  fought  for  the 
cause  which  he  thought  to  be  right,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
fought  bravely.  Perhaps  some  of  my  Northern  friends 
may  think  I  failed  in  my  duty  that  I  did  not  seize  the 
opportunity  to  give  him  "  a  piece  of  my  mind "  on  "  the 
sin  of  rebellion,"  with  an  exhortation  to  repentance ; 
but,  as  that  might  have  been  followed  by  a  piece  of  his 
mind  on  the  wickedness  (as  he  would  look  upon  it)  of 
invading  his  State,  I  do  not  think  the  conversation  would 
have  been  profitable  to  either.  He  talked  very  frankly, 
yet  without  a  particle  of  bitterness,  nor  did  the  fact  that 


THROUGH  MACON  TO  ATLANTA.  101 

he  had  left  an  arm  on  the  field  of  battle  make  him  feel 
that  he  had  a  right  to  hate  every  man  who  hailed  from  the 
North.  So  the  conversation  ran  on  for  an  hour,  till  he 
reached  his  home,  when  I  was  truly  sorry  to  part  from  him; 
since  I  had  found  in  him  one  who  was  certainly  not  an 
enemy,  and  "no  more  a  stranger,"  but  "a  brother  in  the 
household  of  faith,"  whom,  if  I  do  not  meet  again  this 
side  of  the  river,  I  trust  I  shall  meet  when  we  both  have 
"passed  over  the  river,  and  rest  under  the  trees." 

It  was  evening  when  we  reached  Macon,  and  I  saw  it 
only  as  we  passed  round  it,  getting  glimpses  here  and  there 
into  the  lighted  streets.  I  was  sorry  not  to  see  it  in  the 
broad  light  of  day,  for  it  is  reputed  to  be  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  cities  in  the  South,  on  high  ground,  and  laid  out 
in  broad  streets,  lined  with  trees,  with  two  or  three  colleges 
and  other  public  institutions. 

But  another  hundred  miles  remained  of  our  long  jour- 
ney before  we  should  finish  our  "  marching  through  Geor- 
gia," and  it  was  after  ten  o'clock  when  we  roUed  into  the 
station  at  Atlanta,  where  the  first  face  to  greet  me  was  that 
of  Mr.  Samuel  M.  Inman,  who  was  waiting  for  me  with  his 
carriage,  in  which  he  "  took  me  to  his  own  home."  De- 
lightful it  was,  after  a  long  day's  journey,  to  be  once  more 
in  that  sweet  atmosphere,  to  look  in  kindly  faces,  and 
receive  the  greeting  of  kindly  voices.  In  such  a  home  I 
spent  the  three  or  four  days  of  my  stay  in  Atlanta. 

Of  all  the  cities  in  the  South  this  attracts  me  most — 
perhaps  because  I  know  it  best — but  apart  from  any  per- 
sonal associations,  it  has  attractions  of  its  own.  It  is  a 
new  city,  risen  from  the  ashes  in  which  it  was  consumed  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago.  And  often  it  is  with  cities  as 
with  men,  a  resurrection  is  not  only  a  rising  to  a  new  Hfe 
but  a  better  life  than  that  it  had  before.  I  beHeve  the 
people  of  Chicago  look  back  upon  the  great  fire  that  laid 


102  RESURRECTION  OF  A  CITY. 

a  large  part  of  their  city  in  ashes,  as  in  the  end  a  blessing 
— a  hard  discipline,  it  is  true,  but  one  in  which  good  came 
out  of  evil.  So  with  Atlanta  ;  it  seems  not  only  to  have 
sprung  to  a  new  life,  but  a  far  more  vigorous  Hfe  than  it 
had  before.  Now  it  is  not  altogether  a  Southern  city,  but 
as  in  the  old  days  it  was  sometimes  said  of  a  conservative 
politician,  that  he  was  "  a  Northern  man  with  Southern 
principles,"  so  reversing  the  pithy  epigram,  we  may  say  of 
Atlanta  that  it  is  a  Southern  city  with  Northern  energy 
and  enterprise.  More  than  any  other  city  I  know,  it  has 
shaken  off  the  incubus  of  old  habits,  the  result  of  old 
institutions,  and  sprung  forward  like  a  giant  to  run  a  race. 
In  the  old  slavery  days  there  was  a  sort  of  slipshod  air 
about  everything  and  everybody  ;  planters  were  head  over 
heels  in  debt,  falling  behind  from  year  to  year  ;  trying  in 
vain  to  extricate  themselves ;  now  selling  their  slaves  one 
after  another,  even  to  the  family  servants  ;  and  not  unfre- 
quently  the  old  plantation  had  to  be  mortgaged,  tiU  in 
cases  not  a  few,  the  proud  possessers  of  old  estates,  and  the 
inheritors  of  honored  names,  had  to  go  forth  at  last  from 
the  mansions  which  they  had  received  from  their  fathers  to 
eat  the  bitter  bread  of  poverty. 

At  last  by  the  hard  discipline  of  war,  this  downward 
tendency  has  been  checked,  and  now  the  movement  is  the 
other  way.  The  power  to  endure  hardship,  which  was 
developed  in  war,  has  been  turned  to  the  arts  of  peace. 
Poverty  begets  industry,  and  industry  begets  prosperity. 
When  people  are  not  ashamed  to  work,  nor  to  economize, 
they  soon  grow  rich  ;  and  so  it  is  that  Atlanta  has  become 
the  prosperous  city  that  it  is  to-day. 

But  it  is  not  merely  a  money-making  town,  where 
nothing  is  thought  of  but  the  almighty  doUar  :  it  is  hon- 
orably distinguished  for  the  attention  paid  to  education,  as 
shown  in  its  schools  and  higher  institutions,  the  latest  of 


CHURCHES  AND  MINISTERS.  103 

which,  an  Institute  of  Technology,  is  modelled  after  that 
of  Boston. 

Well  provided  also  is  it  with  churches,  which  are  both 
numerous  and  strong.  One  cannot  spend  a  Sunday  here 
without  feehng  that  it  is  eminently  a  church-going  city. 
AU  denominations  flourish.  The  two  largest  bodies  in  the 
South  are  the  Baptists  and  the  Methodists.  The  former 
are  well  represented,  as  everywhere  in  Georgia  ;  while  the 
Methodists,  if  they  will  pardon  the  expression,  "  keep  up 
steam  "  at  a  tremendous  rate.  This  is  not  meant  as  a 
flippant  remark — for  I  could  not  speak  lightly  of  a  body 
which  I  greatly  love  and  honor.  From  the  day  that  Wesley 
preached  in  the  American  colonies,  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  Methodism  this  side  the  Atlantic,  his  followers 
have  been  pioneers  in  carrying  the  Gospel  into  waste 
places.  All  honor  to  them  for  the  courage  and  self-sacri- 
fice with  which  they  have  gone  before  to  prepare  the  way 
of  the  Lord ! 

Nor  have  the  Presbyterians  any  reason  to  be  ashamed, 
for  their  churches  also  are  both  numerous  and  strong. 
Dr.  Barnett  is  now  absent  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Land,  sent  by  the  generous  kindness  of  a  people  who  know 
how  to  appreciate  one  of  the  best  of  ministers.  Dr. 
Strickler,  like  many  others  of  the  leading  preachers  of  the 
South,  had  had  his  military  discipline  and  experience. 
When  the  war  broke  out  he  was  in  College  at  Lexington, 
Virginia ;  and  about  the  time  that  Stonewall  Jackson  left 
the  Military  Institute  to  enter  on  his  memorable  career, 
a  number  of  the  students  formed  a  company,  of  which 
young  Strickler  was  chosen  captain,  and  fought  in  a  num- 
ber of  battles,  until  at  Gettysburg  he  was  wounded  and 
taken  prisoner.  It  was,  if  I  remember  rightly,  more  than 
a  year  that  he  was  confined  at  the  North — a  time  that 
would  be  wearisome  to  most,  but  which  he  did  not  pass  in 


104  A  PRISONER  LEARNS  TWO  LANGUAGES  ! 

idleness,  for  in  it  lie  applied  himself  to  study,  under  the 
instruction  of  a  learned  fellow-prisoner,  and  it  is  said,  made 
himself  master  of  two  languages !  When  at  last  he  was 
exchanged  and  returned  to  Eichmond,  he  and  his  feUow- 
prisoners  expected  to  be  received  with  a  joyous  welcome  ; 
but  as  they  steamed  up  the  James  river  and  came  to  the 
familiar  landing,  they  were  surprised  at  the  absence  not 
only  of  enthusiasm,  but  of  people.  The  streets  were 
almost  deserted,  ominous  token  of  an  impending  flight. 
He  slept  there  that  night,  paying  (as  he  told  me)  seventy- 
five  doUars  for  his  lodging !  (so  worthless  had  the  Confed- 
erate money  become),  and  got  out  of  the  city  by  the  first 
train  the  next  morning,  fortunately  for  himself,  for  in  less 
than  a  week  the  crash  came,  and  all  the  means  of  transport- 
ation were  choked  up  by  the  mass  'of  those  fleeing  from 
the  city.  This  is  the  man,  who,  having  endured  hardness 
as  a  soldier,  is  now  a  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  a  manner 
so  kindly  and  gentle  that  it  is  hard  to  reaUze  that  he  ever 
led  a  charge  on  the  field  of  battle !  As  a  pastor  he  is 
greatly  beloved  by  the  large  congregation  to  which  he  min- 
isters, and  respected  by  the  whole  community. 

Georgia  has  vast  natural  resources,  the  materials  in 
herseK  of  great  prosperity.  In  mineral  wealth,  in  coal 
and  iron,  she  is  perhaps  not  the  equal  of  her  sister  State, 
Alabama ;  but  in  products  of  the  soil  far  richer :  first  of 
all  in  the  fruits  of  the  earth  needed  for  man's  subsistence  : 
in  a  rice  crop  second  only  to  that  of  South  Carolina  ;  and 
sweet  potatoes,  the  food  of  the  South,  second  only  to  that 
of  North  Carolina ;  while  her  cotton  crop,  second  only  to 
that  of  Mississippi,  furnishes  the  staple  of  foreign  com- 
merce, that  brings  to  her  pinnters  the  money  of  the  manu- 
facturers of  both  New  England  and  Old  England. 

With  such  elements  of  wealth,  the  credit  of  the  State, 
if  not  quite  so  high  as  that  of  New  York  or  Massachusetts, 


THE  GOVERNOR  AND  HIS  OLD  SOLDIERS.  105 

is  higher  than  was  that  of  any  one  of  the  States,  or  even 
of  the  National  Government  itself,  before  the  war. 

Apart  from  this,  the  government  of  the  State  is  a  good 
government — it  is  in  good  and  honest  hands,  by  which  the 
laws  are  faithfully  administered.  The  present  Governor, 
General  John  B.  Gordon,  is  the  most  popular  man  in  the 
State,  if  not  in  the  South — a  popularity  which  he  owes 
undoubtedly  to  his  services  in  the  war.  The  man  who 
followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy  till  the  last  hour, 
and  stood  by  the  side  of  General  Lee  when  he  surrendered 
at  Appomattox,  will  never  be  forgotten  by  his  soldiers. 
Nor  does  he  forget  them.  If  there  be  any  class  for  which 
he  feels  most,  it  is  Confederate  soldiers,  who  are  left  pen- 
niless and  destitute.  The  Union  soldiers  are  provided  for 
munificently  by  a  government  that  is  rich,  and  that  scat- 
ters among  the  veterans  nearly  a  hundred  millions  a  year. 
But  the  soldiers  of  a  Lost  Cause  have  no  National  Govern- 
ment to  look  to — nothing  but  State  authority,  and  the 
charity  of  their  old  comrades,  many  of  whom  are  as  poor 
as  they.  Georgia  gives  a  hundred  dollars  a  year  to  each  of 
her  own  soldiers  who  has  lost  a  leg  or  an  arm.  But  that 
is  a  pittance  for  those  who  have  famiUes  dependent  on 
them.  Sitting  in  the  Governor's  room  one  day,  he  told  of 
the  destitution  of  old  soldiers,  scarred  with  wounds,  una- 
ble to  work,  yet  who  had  wives  and  children  in  absolute 
want.  Almost  every  day  they  came  to  him  with  the  same 
pitiful  story.  Only  last  week,  he  said,  came  in  an  old  man, 
who  began  :  "  Governor,  I  have  not  seen  you  since  the  war," 
and  after  telling  the  story  of  his  life,  said  :  "  Now  I  am  an 
old  man,  with  seven  daughters,  and  not  money  enough  to 
buy  a  loaf  of  bread  I  "  With  this,  said  the  Governor,  "  he 
sat  down  in  that  chair,  and  wept  like  a  child."  No  wonder 
that  the  hero  who  has  led  these  very  men  to  battle,  should 
be  touched  to  the  heart  by  the  sorrows  of  his  old  compan- 


106  THE  QUESTION  THAT  FOLLOWS  WAR. 

ions-in-arms,  and  that  it  should  be  the  dream  of  his  life  to 
establish  a  Confederate  Soldiers  Home,  where  these  wrecks 
of  the  war  should  be  saved  from  any  further  "  going  to 
pieces."  He  would  not  have  them  separated  from  their 
families,  and  put  as  pensioners  in  a  kind  of  public  alms- 
house, but  be  gathered  in  a  number  of  homes,  under  a 
general  management,  where  there  should  be  some  simple 
industries,  by  which  they  could  do  a  Uttle  towards  their 
own  support.  Thus  they  would  be  shielded  from  want, 
and  be  able  to  pass  the  evening  of  their  days  in  quietness 
and  peace. 

Of  such  a  governor  Georgia  may  well  be  proud,  and 
not  less  of  his  heroic  wife,  who  for  four  years  followed  the 
camp,  never  being  out  of  the  sound  of  battle,  when  there 
was  need  for  her  womanly  courage  and  devotion.  Atlanta 
has  many  old  soldiers,  whom  the  South  counts  among  her 
bravest  and  her  best,  and  who,  after  being  foremost  in 
war,  are  now  foremost  in  peace.  The  city  and  all  the 
country  round  are  full  of  stirring  associations;  and  as 
we  walk  through  these  bustling  streets,  there  seems  almost 
a  disaccord  between  this  business  activity  and  the  mighty 
memories  that  gather,  like  dark  clouds,  on  the  surround- 
ing hills.  But  so  it  is  that  the  Dead  Past  is  merged 
in  the  Living  Present.  As  the  centre  of  such  a  mingled 
life,  where  the  Old  South  and  the  New  South  come  to- 
gether, Atlanta  sets  one  thinking  of  the  war,  and  of  the 
terrible  problem  that  it  has  left  behind  it ;  and  so  it  is  a 
good  place  to  linger,  while  we  consider  the  great  question 
of  Bace  which  now  confronts  our  American  civilization. 


CHAPTEB  IX. 

THE  BLACK  BELT THE  DEAD  LION SPEAK  GENTLY 

OF  THE  DEAD ! 

As  I  came  up  from  the  Gulf  States,  I  had  crossed  the 
Black  Belt — the  portion  of  the  South  most  densely  popu- 
lated by  the  black  race.  It  is  not  a  fixed  zone,  running 
between  two  parallels  of  latitude,  but  surges  back  and 
forth,  like  an  ocean  current  where  two  seas  meet,  now 
rising  and  rolling  on,  and  now  falling  back,  as  if  sinking 
away  into  fathomless  depths  below  ;  but  covering  all  to- 
gether a  vast  surface,  reaching  half  way  across  the  conti- 
nent. In  this  enormous  Belt  there  are  places  where  the 
blacks  form  fifty,  sixty,  and  even  seventy  and  eighty,  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  Along  this  line  of  deep  shadows 
lies  the  great  problem  of  American  poUtics  and  American 
history. 

So  rapid  has  been  the  march  of  events  that  it  is  hard 
to  realize  that,  within  the  memory  of  men  still  in  their 
early  prime,  this  was  a  population  of  slaves ;  that  they 
were  bondmen  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  which  the 
Lord  brought  them,  though  not  by  the  way  of  the  Red 
Sea !  "What  had  seemed  impossible  was  accomplished,  not 
by  insurrections,  not  by  massacre,  but  by  a  struggle  in 


108  UNCLE  TOM^S  CABIN. 

whicli  they  took  no  share,  but  of  which  they  were  to  re- 
ceive the  benefit.  To-day,  as  we  look  back  at  the  change, 
there  is  something  appalling  in  the  stillness  of  death  that 
has  come  over  a  Power  that  but  lately  held  the  land  in 
awe  ! 

But  there  is  an  old  saying,  honored  for  thousands  of 
years,  that  we  should  speak  kindly  of  the  dead.  It  may 
seem  indeed  a  strange  moment  to  preach  a  funeral  oration 
when  the  corpus  vile  is  lying,  like  a  dead  lion,  in  the  streets, 
for  every  ass  to  kick  at.  But  it  is  the  chivalrous  custom 
of  soldiers,  not  to  bear  even  an  enemy  to  the  grave,  with- 
out some  remembrance  of  the  brave  deeds  that  he  has 
done,  that  may  redeem  his  evil  career.  In  this  spirit  let 
us  say  a  good  word,  if  we  can,  for  the  old  African  lion 
that  fought  so  hard  for  its  life,  but  to  which  none  is  now 
"  so  poor  as  to  do  it  reverence." 

The  system  of  slavery  that  has  now  passed  into  his- 
tory, is  known  to  tis  of  the  present  day  chiefly  through 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin" — that  marvellous  story,  so  vivid,  so 
dramatic,  so  intense  in  interest,  written  with  a  degree  of 
womanly  feeling  and  pathos  that  at  once  caught  the  ear 
of  the  world,  till  it  was  translated  into  aU  languages,  and 
made  the  circuit  of  the  globe,  fiUing  all  civilized  nations 
with  horror  at  the  cruelties  and  crimes  of  American  slave- 
ry. The  book  was  true — ^that  is  to  say,  it  was  a  possible 
truth ;  it  depicted  what  might  have  been  a  fearful  reality. 
All  that  it  tells  might  have  taken  place  on  a  plantation  in 
Louisiana  ;  but  whether  it  did  take  place  (excej^t  in  rare 
instances),  is  another  question.  Its  Southern  critics  say 
that  it  gave  but  one  side  to  the  picture  ;  while  there  was 
another  that  was  kept  in  the  background,  which  needed 
to  be  brought  forward  in  clear  relief,  to  see  the  whole  sur- 
roundings of  the  system  of  slavery. 

This  criticism  is  not  strictly  accurate  :  for  no  fair-mind- 


SOFTER  FEATURES  OF  SLAVERY.  109 

ed  reader  can  say  that  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  gives  but  one 
side  of  slavery — the  dark  side — as  it  contains  some  exqui- 
site pictures  of  plantation  life  in  the  old  days  of  Louisiana, 
that  furnish  a  relief  to  the  blackness  that  follows ;  but  it 
is  true  that,  while  there  are  these  vivid  contrasts  in  the 
picture,  yet  the  story  is  so  told  4ihat  the  dominant  impres- 
sion is  one  of  unmingled  horror,  and  this  it  is  of  which 
Southern  men  complain  as  unjust  to  the  truth  of  history. 

Certainly  the  pictures  of  slavery  that  were  drawn  with 
such  power,  and  took  such  hold  of  the  imagination  that 
they  even  haunted  us  in  our  dreams,  were  very  different 
from  the  milder  form  of  servitude  known  to  most  of  the 
Southern  people,  to  whom  it  was  a  part  of  their  domestic 
life.  The  relations  of  the  two  races  were  the  closest.  The 
negroes  were  not  only  a  part  of  every  community,  but 
members  of  every  household.  Though  they  stood  in  the 
relation  of  servants  to  their  white  masters,  yet  they 
"  belonged  to  the  family,"  and  were  the  objects  of  a  degree 
of  family  affection.  White  children,  almost  as  soon  as 
they  were  born,  were  placed  in  the  arms  of  black  nurses, 
who  cared  for  them  in  babyhood  and  childhood.  This 
constant  intimacy  naturally  led  to  the  warmest  attach- 
ments, which  often  continued  when  the  children  had  grown 
to  be  men  and  women.  Whoever  has  known  the  Southern 
people  must  have  been  struck  with  the  way  in  which 
not  only  women,  but  strong  men,  not  given  to  sentiment, 
speak  of  the  old  "  aunties "  and  "  mammies "  who  cared 
for  them  in  the  years  of  their  childhood. 

As  to  life  on  the  plantations,  those  who  remember  it 
teU  us  that  they  were  conducted  on  a  rather  easy-going 
system.  The  masters  were  not  cruel  men,  nor  even  hard 
men,  who  overworked  the  negroes,  or  subjected  them  to 
undue  severity.  Indeed  they  were  proverbially  indulgent, 
rather  slipshod  in  business  matters,  and  disposed  to  let 


110  LIFE  ON  THE  OLD  PLANTATION. 

things  run  along  pretty  much  as  they  might.  The  plant- 
er's house,  with  its  wide  porches  and  broad  verandas,  was 
the  centre  of  a  little  settlement,  in  the  background  of 
which  were  rows  of  cabins  neatly  whitewashed.  During 
the  day  the  men  were  in  the  fields,  where  the  labor  was 
not  hard,  except  perhaps  at  the  time  of  the  cotton-picking 
or  getting  in  the  sugar-cane.  While  they  were  thus  occu- 
pied, the  women  were  out  of  doors  in  the  sun,  doing  their 
various  kinds  of  work,  singing  some  plantation  melody ; 
while  the  pickaninnies  were  scattered  about  in  costumes 
which,  if  not  very  neat  and  trim,  were  at  least  free  and  easy. 
Pass  along  these  cottages  at  the  close  of  a  Summer's  day, 
and  you  might  see  pictures  indicative  of  anything  but  op- 
pression or  unhappiness.  The  negroes  are  a  mirth-loving 
race,  and  the  thrumming  of  a  banjo,  to  the  tune  of  some 
poor  ditty,  was  enough  to  gather  a  group  of  these  children 
of  nature,  as  merry  as  nature  intended  them  to  be. 

This  is  a  very  picturesque  scene.  But  it  was  some- 
times rudely  interrupted.  The  master  was  very  apt  to 
find,  after  some  experience,  that  the  old  plantation,  run  in 
this  easy-going  way,  was  run  at  a  loss  ;  and  that  at  the 
end  of  the  year  he  was  in  debt,  and  going  from  bad  to 
worse ;  so  that,  to  save  himself,  he  was  obliged  to  get  an 
overseer,  who  would  not  lie  abed  quite  so  late  in  the  morn- 
ing, but  would  be  up  at  daybreak,  riding  over  the  planta- 
tion, seeing  that  every  hand  was  at  work,  and  keeping 
them  at  it  tiU  the  sun  went  down.  It  was  these  overseers, 
who  were  generally  Northern  men,  to  whom  should  be  as- 
cribed the  use  of  the  lash,  and  most  of  the  severities  and 
brutaUties,  on  the  old  plantations. 

In  this  family — comprising  perhaps,  in  men,  women, 
and  children,  hundreds  of  souls — the  one  on  whom  came 
the  heaviest  burden,  was  not  the  negro,  nor  the  planter, 
but  the  planter's  wife,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  large 


DEVOTION  TO  THE  WHITES  DURING  THE  WAR.       Ill 

househiold,  and  supervised  it  all,  laying  out  the  work  for 
the  women,  often  cutting  their  dresses  with  her  own  hands, 
thus  making  herself  the  slave  of  her  slaves !  Nor  should 
it  be  forgotten  how  she  made  her  round  among  the  cabins, 
looking  after  the  sick,  and  not  seldom  kneeling  by  the  side 
of  some  old  mammy  or  aunty,,  to  pray  with  her,  and  sup- 
port her  with  the  consolations  of  religion. 

This  affectionate  care  was  repaid  with  gratitude  and  de- 
votion. The  negro  race  has  its  weaknesses  and  infirmities ; 
but  whatever  these  may  be,  it  is  at  least  capable  of  a  de- 
gree of  affection  that  sometimes  leads  them  to  forget  their 
own  interests.  Of  this  the  most  conspicuous  example  was 
given  in  the  late  war,  when  in  many  cases  the  whole  male 
portion  of  the  family,  all  at  least  capable  of  bearing  arms, 
marched  to  the  field,  leaving  their  wives  and  children 
whoUy  to  the  care  of  the  blacks.  Then  was  their  oppor- 
tunity to  break  away  and  strike  for  freedom,  at  the  same 
time  striking  terror  into  the  defenceless  households.  But 
not  once,  even  in  the  darkest  hours  of  the  war,  did  they 
harm  those  left  to  their  care,  nor  leave  them  to  shift  for 
themselves.  Instead  of  violence,  they  gave  protection; 
instead  of  neglect,  they  worked  the  fields,  and  raised  the 
crops,  and  fed  the  families  of  their  absent  masters,  who 
were  engaged  in  a  war,  the  result  of  which  would  be,  if 
successful,  to  keep  these  very  laborers  in  perpetual  bond- 
age. 

But  this  was  not  all.  In  many  cases  masters  sent  their 
most  trusted  servants  to  the  war,  to  look  after  the  safety 
and  comfort  of  their  own  sons  who  were  in  the  army. 
My  friend.  Major  Baxter  of  NashviUe,  tells  me  of  a  case 
within  his  knowledge,  where  a  young  man — a  mere  boy — 
seized  as  boys  at  that  day  were  apt  to  be  (whether  they 
Uved  at  the  North  or  South),  with  a  desire  to  see  the  war, 
was  at  last  permitted  by  his  father  to  go,  but  only  because 


112  THE  SHADOW  BEHIND  THE  SCENE. 

he  could  send  him  with  a  trusted  family  servant  to  look 
after  him,  who  of  course  felt  that  he  had  the  authority  of 
an  old  uncle.  As  it  happened,  in  some  petty  affair  the  boy 
received  a  trifling  wound,  a  mere  scratch,  that  caused  the 
blood  to  trickle,  which  no  sooner  caught  the  eye  of  the  old 
darky,  than  he  took  the  youngster  in  hand  in  the  most 
vigorous  manner,  calling  him  to  account  in  this  fashion  : 
"  What  shall  I  say  to  my  ole  massa,  who  sent  me  to  look 
arter  you,  when  here  you've  been  done  gone  and  got 
hurt?" 

Thus  did  the  blacks  follow  their  masters  in  camp  and 
field,  as  faithfully  as  they  had  worked  for  them  on  the  old 
plantations.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  was  there 
greater  devotion  of  one  race  to  another,  for  which  the 
white  people  of  the  South  owe  to  their  former  slaves  a 
debt  of  gratitude  which  they  can  never  repay. 

Looking  back  to  these  happy  scenes,  which  he  dimly 
remembers,  Mr.  Grady  has  several  times  expressed  to  me 
his  earnest  wish  that  some  one  of  the  young  writers  of 
the  South,  who  show  such  genius  and  give  such  promise, 
should  write  a  tale  of  Southern  life  in  the  old  days,  that 
should  be  an  offset  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  bringing  into 
clearer  light  the  softer  aspects  of  the  patriarchal  institu- 
tion. I  doubt  if  he  will  ever  find  his  man  or  his  story: 
for  if  the  writer  would  avoid  the  partisanship  which  is 
ascribed  to  Mrs.  Stowe,  he  must  tell  the  truth,  and  the 
whole  truth  ;  and  he  knows  the  awful  possibility  that 
lurked,  as  a  shadow,  behind  all  that  gayety  and  happiness. 
He  knows  how  a  turn  of  fortune  would  have  sent  all  those 
happy  creatures  to  the  block.  A.friend  who  spent  a  Win- 
ter on  a  plantation  at  the  South,  in  a  family  of  the  high- 
est culture  and  Christian  character,  tells  us  that  there  ex- 
isted the  greatest  affection  towards  the  servants,  which 
showed  itself  in  many  ways :  as,  for  instance,  a  marriage 


THINGS  WHICH  CANNOT  BE  DEFENDED.  113 

among  the  latter  was  tlie  occasion  of  a  rural  fete  as  pretty 
as  if  for  a  son  or  daughter  of  the  family.  Here  surely 
slavery  appeared  in  its  least  repulsive  form.  And  yet,  on 
the  very  next  plantation,  the  cruelty  to  the  slaves  was  a 
scandal  that  was  the  talk  of  all  the  country  round ;  and 
on  a  still  night  one  might  hear  the  baying  of  the  blood- 
hounds, that  told  how  the  hunters  were  pursuing  the  fugi- 
tives in  the  forest !  These  are  things  which  cannot  be  cov- 
ered up  by  flowers  of  rhetoric  ;  that  cannot  be  turned  into 
poetry.  For  these  slavery  has  received  the  condemnation 
of  the  civilized  world,  and  it  is  too  late  to  ask  for  a  rever- 
sal of  the  decree.  No  young  author  could  afford  to  risk 
his  reputation  by  writing  a  book  to  apologize  for  slavery: 
it  would  be  howled  down  as  soon  as  it  was  born.  No  man 
is  strong  enough  to  fight  against  the  sympathies  of  the  age. 
There  are  some  things  which  are  as  impossible  in  litera- 
ture as  in  actual  life,  and  one  of  these  is  to  resuscitate 
what  is  dead  and  buried,  or  to  clothe  with  dignity  what 
men  have  pronounced  accursed.  For  these  things  it 
"  behooved  the  Lord  "  that  the  system  should  come  to  an 
end — and  it  came  ! 

But  all  was  not  joy  when  it  came.  Liberty  has  its 
hardships  as  well  as  slavery.  The  master's  hand  might 
be  heavy,  but  it  carried  with  it  protection  and  support, 
shelter  and  food  and  raiment — substantial  realities  to  be 
set  in  the  balance  against  freedom.  Miriam  sang  the  de- 
Hverance  of  her  people  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  but 
it  was  not  long  before  they  sighed  for  the  banks  of  the 
Nile.  So  slavery,  with  all  its  harshness,  took  care  of  num- 
bers who  could  not  take  care  of  themselves,  and  who  but 
for  their  kind  masters  would  have  been  utterly  destitute  ; 
but  who,  under  this  rule,  were  not  cast  off  in  the  time  of 
sickness  or  old  age,  but  had  at  least  a  place  to  die. 

AH  this  is  now  over.    When  the  Day  of  Jubilee  was 


114  THE  BREAKING  OF  OLD  TIES. 

come,  the  negroes  received  as  their  legacy  from  the  war  the 
priceless  boon  of  freedom.  But  with  all  the  exultation  of 
their  new-found  liberty,  many  of  the  poor  creatures  must 
have  felt  their  heartstrings  pull  as  they  turned  their  backs 
on  the  old  plantations,  with  the  world  all  before  them 
where  to  choose.  It  was  a  very  big  world,  but  to  many  of 
them  it  must  have  been  a  very  cold  world  ;  and  we  cannot 
blame  them  if,  like  lost  children,  they  sometimes  sighed 
for  the  shelter  of  their  old  homes.  The  negro  is  a  very 
domestic  creature  ;  he  loves  familiar  scenes  ;  and  he  clung 
to  old  Massa  and  Missus,  to  whom  he  had  been  accustom- 
ed to  look  for  protection.  But  they  too  are  gone.  The 
two  races  are  parted  forever  :  parted  in  their  homes — the 
cabins  stand  no  longer  in  the  shadow  of  the  planter's 
house,  but  far  away  in  the  lonely  forest — parted  in  their 
domestic  life;  parted  in  every  interest;  parted  even  in 
the  worship  of  God.  There  is  something  very  pathetic  in 
this  rupture  of  old  ties,  cleaving  not  only  through  house- 
holds, but  through  churches.  Not  only  do  the  two  races 
stand  apart  in  aU  domestic  relations,  but  they  cannot  even 
go  to  the  house  of  God  in  company.  In  the  old  days  the 
colored  people  were  a  part  of  every  congregation,  and  a  very 
numerous  and  picturesque  part.  In  the  great  churches  of 
Charleston  and  Savannah  the  galleries  were  black  with 
Africans,  among  whom  were  many  bouncing  matrons, 
resplendent  in  a  blaze  of  highly  colored  dresses,  with  their 
heads  wrapped  in  gorgeous  turbans  of  red  bandannas,  in 
which  they  shone  in  a  glory  quite  equal  to  that  of  their 
masters  and  mistresses  whom  they  looked  down  upon. 
Now  aU  that  has  departed.  Now  and  then  a  solitary,  woe- 
begone darky  may  come  back  to  the  old  church,  and 
creep  into  a  corner  and  think  of  other  days,  but  the  poetry 
and  the  picturesqueness  are  gone  forever. 

Since  then  twenty-five  years  have  passed,  and  what  is 


HEWERS  OF  WOOD  AND   DRAWERS  OF  WATER.      115 

tlie  result  of  the  experiment  of  freedom  ?  We  find  that  the 
emancipation  of  the  blacks  has  wrought  no  change  in  their 
industrial  position ;  that  they  are  still  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water  to  their  old  masters,  though  they  are  no 
longer  bondmen,  but  freedmen,  receiving  wages  for  their 
labor.  In  this  readiness  to  work  under  the  new  condi- 
tions, they  have  disproved  the  confident  declaration  of 
their  enemies,  that  black  labor  must  always  be  forced 
labor ;  that  the  negro  was  such  an  idle  creature  that  he 
must  be  compelled  to  work  by  some  legal  power ;  that  if 
he  were  not  driven  to  the  field  by  the  lash,  he  must  be 
subject  to  some  more  or  less  gentle  compulsion.  Some 
prophets  of  evil  at  the  close  of  the  war,  went  so  far  as  to 
predict  that  society  would  go  to  pieces  ;  that  four  millions 
of  slaves,  set  free,  would  refuse  to  work ;  that  they  would 
become  idlers  and  vagabonds,  and  finally  thieves,  robbers, 
and  murderers  ;  till  life  would  become  absolutely  intoler- 
able, and  the  whites  would  have  to  flee  for  refuge  to  some 
part  of  the  earth  which  stiU  retained  a  trace  of  order  and 
civilization. 

This  fear  has  been  entirely  dispelled.  The  negroes  were 
perhaps  a  little  frisky  at  their  first  experience  of  freedom, 
and  may  have  taken  a  good  spell  of  idleness  just  to  know 
"how  it  felt."    But  the  result  proved  that  the  poet  wrote 

truly: 

•*  O  nebber  you  fear 

If  nebber  you  hear 

De  driver  blow  his  horn  ! " 

After  "  lying  off"  for  a  few  days  or  weeks,  they  slowly 
came  back  to  the  old  plantations,  resuming  their  places  in 
the  fields,  only  receiving  wages,  Hke  other  hired  laborers. 
The  result  has  been  satisfactory.  I  know  it  is  said  that 
they  are  lazy  and  shiftless,  and  this  is  true  to  some 
extent,  particularly  in  towns,  where  they  idle  about  the 


116       INCREASE  OF  THE  COLORED  RACE. 

streets.  But  generally  the  habit  of  obedience  to  their  old 
masters,  and  the  pleasant  feeling  they  have  when  at  the 
close  of  the  day  or  the  week,  they  have  dropped  into  their 
hands  the  bright  silver  doUars,  has  brought  them  back  to 
habits  of  industry.  The  prediction  that  they  would  not 
work,  has  been  answered  by  themselves  in  the  fact  that 
they  do  work,  of  which  this  very  year  (1889)  furnishes 
magnificent  proof  in  the  largest  cotton  crop  ever  known, 
exceeding  that  in  the  year  before  the  war  by  over  two 
millions  of  bales !  True,  this  enormous  production  is  as- 
cribed in  part  to  white  labor.  So  much  the  better,  as  it 
proves  that  those  who  once  disdained  the  hard  work  of 
the  field,  have  now  put  their  strong  arms  to  the  task  of 
Southern  regeneration.  Yet,  with  all  that  they  have  done, 
the  heaviest  part  of  the  burden  has  been  borne  on  the 
stalwart  African  shoulders. 

But  the  most  notable  fact  which  this  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury has  demonstrated,  is  the  prodigious  physical  vitality  of 
the  black  race.  When  slavery  was  abolished,  some  shrewd 
observers  predicted  that  it  would  result  in  their  complete 
extinction.  This  was  gravely  expressed  in  the  most  opposite 
quarters,  as  an  illustration  of  which  I  give  the  opinions  of 
two  distinguished  men,  representing  the  extreme  wings — 
Dr.  Palmer  of  New  Orleans  and  Theodore  Parker.  The 
former,  in  a  sermon  preached  before  the  war,  affirmed  of 
the  negro  in  so  many  words,  "His freedom  is  his  destruction"; 
and  Theodore  Parker,  champion  as  he  was  of  the  colored 
people,  thought  they  were  such  a  weak  race — so  helpless 
and  dependent,  and  so  utterly  incapable  of  taking  care  of 
themselves — that,  if  set  free,  they  would  dwindle  and  disap- 
pear. He  said, "  When  slavery  is  abolished,  the  African  pop- 
ulation will  decline  in  the  United  States,  and  die  out  of  the 
South  as  out  of  Northampton  and  Lexington !  "  Naturally 
we  look  upon  these  strange  predictions  as  relics  of  a  pre- 


A  POPULATION  OF  SEVEN  MILLIONS  !  lit 

historic  age,  and  yet  within  a  few  weeks  I  have  received  a 
speech  by  an  Alabama  Senator,  in  which  he  argues  at 
great  length  that  "  the  African  cannot  survive  in  America," 
and  that  "freedom  has  sealed  the  fate  of  the  colored  man!  '* 
Well !  if  he  is  going  to  die  out  in  the  land,  he  takes  a  long 
time  about  it,  and  enters  on  the  task  of  self-extinction  in 
a  strange  way.  "Whether  it  be  according  to  any  law  by 
which  races  living  in  poverty,  with  scant  clothing  and  hard 
fare — or,  as  some  philosophers  would  say,  Hving  nearer  to 
nature — multiply  more  rapidly  than  those  living  in  com- 
parative luxury,  the  fact  is  apparent  that  the  black  race,  in- 
stead of  diminishing,  has  increased ;  some  say  much  faster 
than  the  whites  ;  that  while  the  whites  have  also  increased, 
the  blacks  have  swarmed!  The  relative  proportion  can 
only  be  decided  by  the  next  census.  But,  even  admitting 
the  increase  of  the  two  races  to  be  equal,  that  alone  shows 
in  the  black  race  a  physical  vitality  which  will  give  it 
strength  to  live  for  many  generations. 

In  1865,  when  the  war  closed,  there  were  four  millions 
of  colored  people  in  the  Southern  States  ;  to-day  there  are 
seven  millions — an  increase  of  three  millions  in  twenty-five 
years,  or  over  a  hundred  thousand  a  year  I  Thus,  instead 
of  dying  out,  the  race  increases  with  great  rapidity ;  the 
Black  Belt  grows  denser  and  blacker,  till  it  lies  like  a 
dark  thundercloud  along  the  Southern  horizon- 


CHAPTEE  X. 

A  NEW  DEPARTURE — THE  NEGRO  VOTE. 

The  fidelity  of  the  blacks  to  the  whites  during  the  war, 
we  should  suppose,  would  have  awakened  in  the  latter  a 
feeling  of  gratitude  to  those  to  whom  they  owed  so  much, 
and  made  their  relations  closer  than  ever.  So  it  might 
have  been  if  these  had  remained  unchanged.  So  long  as 
the  two  races  lived  together  as  masters  and  servants,  there 
was  no  friction  between  them,  as  the  one  was  subject  to 
the  other,  and  its  attitude  was  that  of  submission  and  obe- 
dience. But  when  the  war  was  over,  and  the  sky  had 
cleared,  "  old  things  had  passed  away,  and  all  things  had 
become  new."  There  had  been  an  upheaval  and  disloca- 
tion of  the  former  strata  of  society;  so  that  those  who  had 
been  accustomed  to  look  down  upon  their  inferiors,  sud- 
denly found  themselves  standing  on  the  same  level  and  in 
close  proximity.  There  were  no  longer  masters  and  slaves, 
but  simply  white  and  black  "  fellow-citizens."  *    From  that 

*  This  is  the  order  of  events,  which  shows  the  several  stages 
of  progress: 

In  the  early  part  of  the  war  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  urged  by 
the  more  pronounced  anti-slavery  men  to  issue  a  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation ;  but  with  his  usual  caution,  he  hesitated  and 


FROM  EMANCIPATION  TO  CITIZENSHIP.  119 

moment  jealousies  arose  wliicli  did  not  exist  before,  and  a 
process  of  alienation  began,  which  has  continued  to  widen 
tiU  the  two  races  now  stand  apart  in  complete  separation. 
The  cHmax  was  reached  when,  in  addition  to  the  fullest 

delayed  from  month  to  month,  hoping  that  the  ending  of  the 
war  would  render  such  an  extremfe  measure  unnecessary.  But 
as  it  still  went  on  with  increasing  bitterness  and  doubtful  issue, 
he  began  to  perceive  that  in  the  last  resort  he  might  be  com- 
pelled to  take  this  step ;  and  on  the  22d  of  September,  1862, 
(within  a  week  after  the  battle  of  Antietam,  when  perhaps  he 
thought  the  South  might  be  more  disposed  to  listen  to  reason) 
he  sounded  the  first  note  of  warning :  that  if  it  persisted  in  re- 
bellion, in  just  one  hundred  days  from  that  date — viz :  on  the 
1st  of  January,  1863 — he  would  issue  a  Proclamation  declaring 
that  "all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  the  people 
whereof  should  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  should 
be  then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  free."  The  warning  was 
not  heeded.  The  war  went  on,  and  on  the  appointed  day  the 
thunderbolt  fell  in  that  great  Proclamation  of  Emancipation, 
which  was  to  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  American  his- 
tory. It  closed  with  these  memorable  words :  "And  upon  this 
act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted  by  the 
Constitution  upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate 
judgment  of  mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

In  the  very  year  that  the  war  ended,  1865,  slavery  was  forever 
abolished  by  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
which  declares  that  "neither  slavery,  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have 
been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any 
place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction."  Three  years  later,  in  1868, 
was  added  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  securing,  not  only  the 
liberty  of  the  blacks,  but  their  citizenship,  as  it  declared  that  "  all 
persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States  are  citizens," 
and  that  of  their  privileges  as  such  they  cannot  be  deprived  by 
any  State;  and  in  1870  came  the  Fifteenth,  and  last.  Amend- 
ment, that  "the  right  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  to 
vote,  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States,  or  by 
any  State,  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude." 


120  THE  VOTE  NOT  A  NATURAL  RIGHT. 

personal  liberty,  the  blacks  were  raised  stiQ  bigber,  and 
invested  witb  political  power.  This  is  not  included  in 
freedom.  Alexander  II.  emancipated  twenty  millions  of 
serfs  in  Russia,  but  tbat  did  not  give  them  the  right  to 
vote.  Neither  did  it  give  the  right  to  the  freed  slaves  of 
America.  It  is  important  to  keep  these  two  things  distinct. 
Personal  liberty  may  be  a  natural  right,  but  the  privilege 
of  voting  certainly  is  not.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  of 
late  of  "manhood  suffrage  "  (which  has  a  brave  sound,  that 
fits  it  to  be  a  political  war-cry),  as  if  suffrage  were  a  right 
which  attached  to  every  man,  of  woman  born,  however  igno- 
rant, though  he  were  a  fool  or  an  idiot,  for  this  did  not 
destroy  the  fact  that  he  was  stni  a  man  !  In  all  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe  that  have  free  institutions,  even  in  aristo- 
cratic England,  there  has  been  a  tendency  towards  this 
feature  of  a  pure  democracy.  Every  few  years  there  has 
been  an  extension  of  the  suffrage,  making  the  qualifica- 
tions less  rigid,  till  now  the  voting  class  includes  almost 
the  whole  population  of  England.  These  changes  Ameri- 
cans are  wont  to  hail  as  movements  in  the  direction  of  lib- 
erty. But  whether  they  are  in  the  direction  of  good  gov- 
ernment, is  another  question.  That  depends  on  whether 
those  to  whom  the  vote  is  given  are  fit  to  use  it.  If  not, 
every  extension  of  the  suffrage,  so  far  from  being  a  step  in 
the  way  of  progress,  is  a  step  backward  towards  barbarism. 
It  is  this  absurd  notion  of  natural  rights,  carried  to  the 
utmost  extreme,  that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  false  and 
destructive  theories  of  socialism  and  communism,  which 
threaten  society  in  the  Old  World.  It  is  in  political  phi- 
losophy what  "  original  sin  "  is  in  theology — the  "  primeval 
curse,"  the  "Adam's  fall,  in  which  we  sinned  all." 

From  that  entailed  curse  no  nation  has  suffered  more 
than  our  own.  The  first  downward  plunge  was  made 
when  the  suffrage  was  given  to  the  immigrants  just  landed 


IMPORTING  RULERS  BY  THE  CARGO.  121 

on  our  shores.  History  could  not  furnish  a  better  argu- 
ment against  the  suicidal  folly  of  giving  political  power  to 
those  who  are  utterly  incompetent  to  use  it.  Universal  suf- 
fi-age  is  well  enough  in  New  England,  in  the  country  towns, 
where  there  is  general  intelligence,  and  the  people  have 
been  trained  to  voting  in  their  town  elections  ;  but  to  give 
it  to  the  ignorant  creatures  that  are  "  dumped,"  like  cattle, 
on  our  wharves,  is  the  very  insanity  of  democracy.  We 
have  found  what  a  terrible  curse  it  is  in  New  York  city, 
where  we  are  overrun  by  these  hordes  that  have  not  the 
remotest  idea  of  American  institutions.  "We  import  igno- 
rance by  the  cargo,  and  set  it  up  to  rule  over  us.  Mr. 
Hugh  McCulloch,  in  his  recent  admirable  volume,  argues 
that  the  giving  of  the  suffrage  to  all  the  immigrants  that 
land  upon  our  shores,  is  the  great  danger  of  the  Republic. 

But,  as  if  it  were  not  enough  to  commit  one  such  folly, 
we  must  add  another,  and  a  greater,  in  giving  the  same 
unrestricted  suffrage  to  the  negroes  of  the  South.  Not 
that  it  is  any  worse  to  give  the  vote  to  ignorant  blacks 
than  to  ignorant  whites,  [it  is  not  the  color  I  object  to, 
but  the  ignorance  wherever  it  exists,  in  white  or  black — 
the  mistake  is  as  great  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,] 
it  is  worse  only  in  that  it  is  far  greater  in  amount ;  that 
whereas  the  immigrants  in  our  Northern  cities  are  counted 
by  tens  of  thousands,  the  blacks  in  the  South  are  counted 
by  millions.  One  folly  does  not  excuse  another  ;  it  should 
rather  be  a  warning  against  it ;  and  the  horrible  blunder 
that  was  made  in  giving  the  vote  to  the  "raw  Irish," 
should  have  warned  us  against  plunging  into  a  still  deeper 
abyss  by  giving  it  to  the  blacks  without  reserve. 

But  with  a  nation,  as  with  individuals,  there  is  some- 
times a  state  of  the  public  mind  approaching  to  frenzy, 
which  leads  it  to  rush  to  fatal  extremes.  Such  an  access 
of  rage  and  madness  is  apt  to  follow  a  civil  war.    It  fol- 


122  LINCOLN  ON  POLITICAL  EQUALITY. 

lowed  ours,  and  there  was  but  one  man  who  could  control 
it — the  man  who  had  carried  the  country  through  the  war, 
and  thereby  acquired  a  boundless  popularity.  Such  a 
strong  hand  was  needed  in  the  critical  period  of  recon- 
struction. How  he  would  have  acted  in  this  very  matter, 
it  is  not  dJJBBLCult  to  see  :  for  all  his  ideas  and  habits  of 
mind  were  conservative,  and  with  his  sense  of  humor  he 
would  have  received  a  proposal  to  give  the  suffrage  to  the 
blacks  just  off  the  plantation,  as  a  huge  joke  !  This  was 
something  which  he  never  dreamed  of.  When  he  wrote 
his  Emancipation  Proclamation,  he  promised  the  slaves 
their  liberty,  to  be  maintained  by  all  the  mihtary  forces  of 
the  United  States ;  but  it  never  entered  his  head  that  he 
was  to  divide  with  the  newly  emancipated  the  business  of 
the  government !  On  this  point  we  are  not  left  to  conjec- 
ture, for  he  had  expressed  himself  in  no  doubtful  language. 
Long  before  the  war,  in  his  famous  joint  debate  with 
Douglas,  in  answering  the  question  whether  he  was  "  reaUy 
in  favor  of  a  perfect  equality  between  the  negroes  and 
white  people,"  he  replied  in  words  which  could  not  be 
more  explicit :  "  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of 
bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  political  equality 
of  the  white  and  black  races.  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have 
been,  in  favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors  of  negroes,  nor 
of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office,  nor  to  intermarry  with 
white  people  ;  and  I  will  say,  in  addition  to  this,  that  there 
is  a  physical  difference  between  the  white  and  black  races 
which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the  two  races  living 
together  on  terms  of  social  and  political  equality." 

No  doubt  Mr.  Lincoln's  ideas  may  have  been  changed 
by  the  war,  which  brought  an  overturning  of  all  things ; 
but  it  could  not  change  the  "  physical  difference,"  which, 
in  his  view,  would  ^^ foremr  forbid  the  two  races  living  to- 
gether on  terms  of  social  and  political  equality."    Remem- 


THE  PLEA  OF  NECESSITY.  123 

bering  this,  it  is  safe  to  suppose  that  had  he  been  living 
at  the  time  this  legislation  was  before  Congress,  his  rug- 
ged common-sense  would  have  perceived  the  fearful  dan- 
ger of  committing  political  power  to  such  untried  hands. 
Here,  as  in  the  settlement  of  the  many  other  difficult 
questions  of  reconstruction,  the  country  was  made  to  feel 
mournfully  the  want  of  that  large,  kind,  gentle  wisdom. 
The  greatest  calamity  that  ever  happened  to  the  South, 
was  the  assassination  of  Abraham  Lincoln  !  When  he  was 
in  his  grave,  another  of  quite  a  different  stamp  reigned  in 
his  stead,  Andrew  Johnson,  who,  with  his  perverse  obsti- 
nacy and  utter  want  of  tact,  soon  succeeded  in  embroiling 
himself  with  Congress,  where  he  was  confronted  in  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  by  another  man  equally  deter- 
mined, Thaddeus  Stevens,  whose  imperious  wiU  made  him 
the  ruling  spirit  in  that  stormy  time,  and  able  to  lead  his 
party  to  any  extreme  of  rash  legislation.  Between  the  two, 
there  was  little  place  for  prudence  and  moderation. 

The  plea  for  negro  suffrage  was  one  of  necessity.  It 
was  the  same  argument  that  was  used  during  the  war  to 
justify  any  violation  of  private  rights  or  State  rights,  viz  : 
that  it  was  a  "  war  measure,"  and  was  necessary  to  save  the 
country  !  The  ballot  was  declared  to  be  a  political  neces- 
sity, "  unless  we  would  sacrifice  the  results  of  the  war " ! 
If  all  power  in  the  Southern  States  were  left  in  the  hands 
of  the  whites,  they  would  legislate  the  blacks  back  into 
slavery ;  or,  if  they  did  not,  would  impose  such  restrictions 
upon  their  liberty  as  would  reduce  them  to  a  state  of  quasi- 
servitude.  For  this  fear  there  was  good  reason.  Hardly 
had  the  war  closed,  and  the  machinery  of  legislation  been 
put  in  motion,  before  there  were  movements  here  and  there 
to  pass  such  laws  as  to  neutralize  the  benefits  of  freedom. 
The  black  man  was  no  longer  a  slave,  but  an  "  apprentice," 
wha  could  be  "  bound  out "  to  hard  labor  under  conditions 


124  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  REVERSED. 

almost  as  stringent  as  those  of  criminals  in  the  chain-gang.* 
Against  this  there  was  no  insurmountable  barrier  but  to 
give  the  vote  to  the  whole  negro  population.  Ardent  par- 
tisans reasoned  that  a  people  could  not  be  juggled  out  of 
their  rights  to  whom  the  ballot  was  given  without  quali- 
fication, restriction,  or  limitation  !  How  greatly  they  were 
mistaken  in  this,  the  experience  of  a  few  years  fuUy  proved. 
To  make  the  matter  worse,  not  only  were  the  blacks 
let  into  the  citadel  of  power,  but  many  of  the  whites  were 
shut  out.  To  be  sure,  they  could  resume  their  former 
position  on  easy  terms.  Says  Mr.  Blaine  in  his  History: 
"  The  great  mass  of  those  who  had  resisted  the  national 
authority,  were  restored  to  all  their  rights  of  citizenship 
by  the  simple  taking  of  an  oath  of  future  loyalty;  and 
those  excepted  from  immediate  reinstatement,  were  prom- 
ised full  forgiveness  on  the  slightest  exhibition  of  repent- 
ance and  good  works."  But  even  this  requirement  grated 
harshly  on  the  proud  spirits  that  had  been  leaders  in  the 
war,  who  held  back  from  taking  the  iron-clad  oath ;  and 
when  the  blacks  were  admitted  to  the  polls  en  masse,  the 
whites  found  themselves  swamped  as  by  an  inundation. 
This  was  a  complete  revolution.  Power  was  taken  away 
from  the  upper  classes,  and  given  to  the  lower — the  course 
directly  opposed  to  reason  and  common-sense.  Nature 
seems  to  ordain  that  in  political  societies,  as  in  all  human 
affairs,  intelligence  shall  rule  over  ignorance,  and  civiliza- 
tion over  barbarism.  But  here  this  natural  order  was 
reversed.  Ignorance  was  set  to  rule  over  intelligence,  and 
thus  the  whole  framework  of  society  was  turned  upside 
down.      That  which  had  been  at  the  top  was  savagely 

*  For  a  full  account  of  this  Southern  legislation,  see  Mr. 
Blaine's  "Twenty  Years  in  Congress  "  (Volume  II.,  Chapter  V.), 
wherein  he  gives  such  details  as  justify  him  in  describing  it  as 
"a  virtual  reenactment  of  the  slave  code." 


NEGRO  GOVERNMENT.  125 

thrown  down  and  put  at  the  bottom,  and  the  bottom  was 
dug  out  and  put  at  the  top.  This,  whatever  the  political 
necessity  that  compelled  it,  I  cannot  but  look  upon  as 
anything  less  than  the  triumph  of  barbarism,  and  a  crime 
against  civilization ! 

The  effect  was  what  might  have  been  expected.  The 
poor  people  who  received  the  ballot  hardly  knew  what  it 
meant.  They  could  not  read  the  names  that  were  written 
on  it,  and  were  i;eady  to  vote  as  they  were  told,  for  any- 
body living  or  dead — for  Andrew  Jackson,  or  George 
Washington,  or  Moses,  or  Melchisedek !  Of  course  they 
were  the  easy  prey  of  demagogues,  who  could  flatter  them 
by  appeals  to  negro  vanity,  or  (what  they  understood  stiU 
better)  pay  them  for  a  vote,  as  they  would  for  a  day's 
work ;  and  they  made  a  pretty  mess  of  legislation.  I  was 
in  Richmond  soon  after  the  war,  and  went  up  to  the  old 
Capitol,  and  saw  both  houses  fiUed  almost  wholly  with 
negroes.  It  was  not  a  cheerful  sight,  and  as  I  turned 
away,  I  could  but  ask  myself.  Is  this  the  highest  result  of 
free  institutions  in  the  New  World  ? 

Then  the  beauties  of  negro  government  were  illustrated 
to  the  fuU.  In  South  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  States  it  had 
a  clean  sweep  ;  and  if  we  are  to  believe  the  records  of  the 
time,  it  was  a  period  of  corruption  such  as  had  never  been 
known  in  the  history  of  the  country.  The  blacks,  having 
nothing  to  lose,  were  ready  to  vote  to  impose  any  tax,  or 
to  issue  any  bonds  of  town,  county,  or  State,  provided  they 
had  a  share  in  the  booty ;  and  thus  negro  government, 
manipulated  by  carpet-baggers,  ran  riot  over  the  South. 
It  was  chaos  come  again.  The  former  masters  were  gov- 
erned by  their  servants,  while  the  latter  were  governed  by 
a  set  of  adventurers  and  plunderers.  The  history  of  those 
days  is  one  which  we  cannot  recall  without  indignation  and 
shame.     After  a  time  the  moral  sense  of  the  North  was  so 


126  THE  NEGRO  VOTE  DEFEATS  ITS  OBJECT. 

shocked  by  these  performances  that  a  Eepublican  Admin- 
istration had  to  withdraw  its  proconsuls,  when  things  at 
once  resumed  their  former  condition,  and  the  management 
of  affairs  came  back  into  the  old  hands. 

Time  is  sure  to  bring  its  revenges  ;  and  there  seemed  a 
kind  of  Nemesis  in  the  issue,  by  which  the  machinery  so 
elaborately  prepared  to  perpetuate  a  certain  rule,  had  ex- 
actly the  opposite  effect.  This  amazing  stroke  of  poHcy 
was  intended  to  reduce  the  power  of  the  white  vote  by 
raising  up  a  colored  vote  to  offset  it.  But  owing  to  the 
greater  skill  of  the  whites  in  the  manipulating  of  votes,  or 
their  power  of  coaxing  or  overawing  their  former  servants, 
the  course  of  the  latter  was  speedily  reversed,  and  thrown 
almost  solidly  on  the  side  of  their  old  masters.  And  inas- 
much as  the  negroes  were  now  counted  in  their  full  num- 
bers— instead  of  at  three-fifths,  as  before,  in  fixing  the 
basis  of  representation — the  addition  of  their  votes  swelled 
enormously  the  political  power  of  the  South  in  Congress 
and  in  the  Electoral  College,  and  thereby  in  the  choice  of 
President  of  the  United  States ! 

Here  was  a  shifting  of  the  scenes  which  completely 
upset  the  calculations  of  the  politicians.  The  history  of 
politics  is  full  of  surprises  ;  but  never  was  there  a  greater 
one  than  in  the  operation  of  negro  suffrage  at  the  South. 

Since  that  time  things  have  settled  down  into  a  regular 
"  system,"  which  is  simply  that  of  systematic  disregard  of 
the  laws  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But 
this  slight  discrepancy  troubles  no  man's  conscience,  as 
every  man,  when  questioned,  declares  himself,  like  the 
toper  in  Maine,  "  in  favor  of  the  law,  but  *  agin '  its  execu- 
tion" !  The  matter  is  perfectly  understood,  and  there  need 
be  no  ambiguity  about  it.  The  negro  vote,  like  the  cotton 
crop,  is  always  in  the  market,  to  be  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder.    This  seemed  to  be  the  first  tangible  idea  which  the 


THE  NEGRO  SELLING  HIS  VOTE.  12t 

blacks  had  of  the  ballot — ^that  it  was  something  they  cotdd 
sell,  and  something  which  they  have  sold  from  that  day  to 
this,  their  chief  ambition  being  to  get  a  good  price.  The 
negro  is  for  sale  to-day  as  much  as  ever.  He  is  put  up  at 
auction  on  the  block,  or  rather  he  puts  himself  up.  A  New 
England  pastor  in  Florida  told  me  of  a  scene  he  witnessed 
at  the  polls.  A  negro  got  up  on  a  box,  and  said:  "I  hasn't 
voted.  Does  any  gemman  want  to  speak  to  me?"  Of 
course  he  found  a  "  gemman "  who  was  ready  to  whisper 
something  in  his  ear.  But  he  was  not  so  simple  as  to  take 
the  first  bid,  and  asked  if  "  any  oder  gemman  wanted  to 
speak  to  him ";  and  after  receiving  several  confidential 
communications,  yielded  to  the  arguments  of  the  "gem- 
man "  who  spoke  the  loudest,  or  in  the  way  that  he  could 
best  understand.  All  are  not  so  unblushing  as  this.  One 
colored  brother,  I  was  told,  had  a  conscience  about  the 
matter,  and  made  it  a  principle  not  to  take  more  than  two 
dollars  and  a  half  for  his  vote,  saying  that  "that  was  all  it 
was  worth"! 

In  such  hands  the  suffrage  is  a  farce — not  a  farce  in  the 
sense  that  it  is  only  a  subject  for  laughter,  but  a  horrible 
farce,  in  which  the  stake  played  for  in  this  tossing  of  the 
dice  is  the  government  of  a  people  that  profess  to  be 
civihzed,  with  the  effect  of  a  general  demoralization  of 
both  races,  whites  and  blacks,  one  of  which  thinks  it  is  no 
harm  to  buy  what  the  other  is  so  ready  to  sell.  So  gen- 
eral has  this  buying  and  selling  become,  that  many  have 
told  me  that  it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  have  an  honest 
vote,  and  they  had  given  it  up  in  despair. 

From  buying  votes,  it  is  but  a  step  to  fraud  in  counting 
them,  which  is  cheaper,  and  quite  as  effective  ;  or  ballot- 
boxes  may  be  emptied  of  the  "wrong"  votes,  and  stuffed 
with  the  "  right "  kind.  There  is  but  one  step  further — 
to  intimidation,  when  men  come  to  the  poUs  with  shot- 


128  FRAUD  AND  INTIMIDATION. 

guns,  not  of  course  to  do  any  mischief,  but  as  a  gentle 
liint  to  the  other  side  that  it  might  be  safer  to  retire  into 
the  woods  or  to  their  cabins,  and  leave  the  business  of 
electing  public  officers  to  those  who  understand  it  better. 
If  this  mere  show  of  force  does  not  prove  sufficient,  the 
guns  are  used  in  a  more  effective  way.  We  hear  of  vio- 
lence not  unfrequently  ending  in  murder  ;  of  midnight 
assassinations  committed  by  masked  marauders — Ku  Klux 
Klans,  or  whatever  they  may  be  called.  These  outrages 
have  produced  at  the  North  such  a  feeling  of  indignation, 
that  there  is  a  general  outcry  that  stern  measures  be  taken 
for  their  suppression.  Of  course  such  cowardly  crimes 
should  be  punished  with  all  the  power  of  the  law.  The 
only  question  is.  By  what  power  shall  they  be  punished  ? 
Murder  is  a  crime  against  the  State,  to  be  punished  by  the 
State.  If  a  murder  is  committed  in  the  streets  of  New 
York,  we  do  not  send  to  Washington  to  ask  for  aid  in 
bringing  the  murderer  to  justice.  There  may  be  a  case 
of  crime  so  extreme,  and  comprehending  so  many  persons, 
that  the  State  authorities  are  powerless,  and  the  General 
Government  may  be  asked  to  interfere.  Thus  if  there  were 
a  riot  in  this  city,  such  as  we  saw  in  1863,  which  should 
threaten,  if  unchecked,  to  overthrow  all  law,  and  perhaps 
lay  the  city  in  ashes,  the  President  might  order  the  troops 
from  Governor's  Island  to  give  support  to  the  police  in 
enforcing  order ;  but  surely  we  do  not  look  to  that  source 
of  authority  to  manage  the  internal  affairs  of  our  State. 
No  more  can  it  be  called  to  perform  police  duty  in  the 
South.  There,  as  at  the  North,  crimes  must  be  punished 
by  the  States  in  which  they  are  committed.  If  the  Gen- 
eral Government  can  give  indirect  aid,  of  course  it  will ; 
but  with  the  best  intention,  it  can  hardly  be  expected  to 
reach  out  its  long  arm  from  "Washington  to  lay  hold  of 
fugitives  in  the  swamps  and  cane-brakes  of  the  South. 


DEMAND  FOR  A  FREE  BALLOT.  129 

But  the  demand  is  for  the  President,  supported  by 
Congress,  to  interfere  to  secure  a  free  and  honest  ballot  at 
the  South  !  This  might  well  set  us  at  the  North  to  think- 
ing whether  we  are  not  responsible  for  this  complication  of 
affairs.  "We  have  forced  universal  suffrage  upon  the  South, 
and  now  are  asked  to  step  in  to  save  it  from  the  natural 
consequence  of  our  own  blunders  and  mistakes. 

Have  we  well  considered  what  it  means  to  "regulate 
elections "  at  the  South  ?  Do  we  mean  to  send  an  army 
there,  and  have  soldiers  stand  guard  at  the  polls?  The 
experiment  of  military  government  has  been  tried  with  a 
result  that  is  not  encouraging.  After  the  war,  the  power  at 
command  was  almost  absolute.  When  General  Grant  was 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  Commander  of  the 
Army  and  Navy,  he  had  lieutenants  in  the  South  (all  brave 
in  fighting  battles,  but  who  had  a  limited  experience  in 
civil  life)  that  were  ready  to  declare  martial  law  in  every 
city  from  Richmond  to  New  Orleans  ;  to  surround  every 
State-house  with  soldiers;  and  to  dictate  the  choice  of 
rulers  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Such  extreme  meas- 
ures were  not  resorted  to  (except  perhaps  in  one  instance, 
by  Sheridan  at  New  Orleans) ;  yet  during  the  whole  of 
General  Grant's  eight  years  of  power,  there  was  in  the 
South  what  amounted  to  a  mihtary  occupation,  with  all 
the  pressure  that  it  brings  to  bear  on  legislation.  But 
so  utter  was  the  failure  of  this  policy  of  coercion,  that 
scarcely  had  Mr.  Hayes  been  inaugurated  when,  under  the 
advice  of  his  distinguished  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Evarts, 
it  was  abandoned  as  absolutely  beyond  the  power  of  the 
National  Government. 

"Ah,  then,"  say  some,  "  there  is  no  hope  for  the  eman- 
cipated slaves — emancipated  only  in  name  !  If  the  South 
will  not  do  them  justice,  and  the  North  cannot  enforce  it, 
they  are  left  to  be  ground  between  the  upper  and  nether 


130  THE  WHOLE  SOUTH  BEARS  THE  ODIUM. 

millstones ! "  Not  quite  so  bad  as  that !  Injustice  always 
brings  its  own  punishment.  The  South  is  suffering  to-day 
from  the  lawlessness  within  her  borders.  Every  "  outrage  " 
that  is  sent  on  the  wings  of  lightning  to  the  North,  stirs 
up  anew  the  feeling  of  indignation,  and  is  a  warning  to 
Northern  people  and  Northern  capital  to  keep  away  from 
a  land  thus  smitten  by  the  pestilence.  Of  course,  in  this 
sweeping  condemnation  the  good  people  of  the  South  suf- 
fer with  the  bad :  because  it  is  assumed  that  these  foul 
deeds  £ire  upheld,  or  at  least  condoned,  by  public  opinion. 
In  this  there  is  a  degree  of  injustice.  Quiet  and  peace- 
able men  express  their  horror  and  disgust  at  them,  but  say 
that  they  are  the  work  of  lawless  ruffians,  such  as  infest 
every  community,  and  who  are  not  more  numerous  at  the 
South  than  the  class  of  professional  criminals  at  the  North. 
But  however  few  they  may  be,  they  seem  to  be  strong 
enough  to  defy  the  law :  for  I  have  yet  to  hear  of  a  single 
man  punished  for  his  part  in  these  midnight  assassina- 
tions! And  so  long  as  murderers  walk  abroad  in  the 
light  of  day  without  fear,  the  whole  community  must  bear 
the  odium.  If  the  Southern  States  have  not  the  power  or 
the  will  to  arrest  the  perpetrators  of  such  crimes  and  bring 
them  to  justice,  let  them  take  the  responsibility.  They  are 
the  agents  for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers,  and  ought  not 
to  bear  the  sword  in  vain.  If  they  fail  in  their  duty,  it  is 
their  fault,  and  not  ours.  If  they  will  not  punish  violence 
and  blood,  on  them  will  rest  the  shame  and  the  disgrace, 
and  theirs  will  be  the  inevitable  punishment :  for  such 
things  cannot  be  done  in  a  civilized  community  without 
provoking  a  terrible  retribution  in  the  demoralization 
which  always  follows  unpunished  crime. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CAPACITY  OF  THE  NEGRO HIS  POSITION  IN  THE 

NORTH.      THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

I  should  have  more  hope  of  the  progress  of  the  African 
in  the  future,  if  he  had  made  more  progress  in  the  past. 
But  his  history  is  not  encouraging.  What  he  has  done  on 
his  native  continent  is  all  a  blank  ;  but  what  has  he  done 
since  he  was  transplanted  to  America  ? — for  he  has  been 
here  as  long  as  the  white  man.  The  first  slaves  were 
brought  to  Jamestown,  Ya.,  in  1619,  the  year  before  the 
Pilgrims  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock.  Thus  the  two  races 
began  their  career  together  on  th-e  Western  Continent, 
and  yet  who  can  for  an  instant  compare  the  achievements 
of  the  one  with  those  of  the  other!  During  the  long 
lapse  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  years,  the  negro  race 
has  not  produced  a  single  great  leader.  It  will  not  do 
to  say  that  this  has  been  because  they  were  kept  down. 
A  great  race,  numbering  miQions,  cannot  be  kept  down. 
Besides,  in  half  the  country  there  was  no  effort  to  keep 
them  down  :  for  slavery  in  the  North  was  abolished  a 
century  ago,  and  yet  the  same  inferiority  exists.  I  do  not 
mention  this  with  any  feeling  of  pride  in  the  superiority 
of  the  white  race  ;   on  the  contrary  it  is  with   extreme 


132  BLACKS  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME. 

regret  that  I  recognize  the  backwardness  of  my  colored 
brethren.  But  I  cannot  draw  pictures  of  fancy  that  are 
not' borne  out  by  facts.  I  must  see  things  as  they  are  :  or 
at  least  as  they  appear  to  my  eyes  ;  and  so  seeing,  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  few  colored  people  that  are  scattered  here 
and  there  in  the  villages  of  New  England,  do  not  compare 
well  with  some  splendid  old  types  of  the  race  whom  I  knew 
in  my  childhood.  If  the  reader  will  indulge  me  in  the 
episode,  I  should  like  to  give  him  a  picture  or  two  of  pure 
African  genius  half  a  century  ago. 

Although  we  of  the  North  know  much  less  of  the  colored 
people  than  those  who  live  at  the  South  (as  they  are  so 
much  fewer  in  numbers  here  than  there),  yet  we  know 
something  of  them,  and  I  for  one  have  personal  reasons  to 
remember  them  with  a  very  strong  feeling,  as  to  one  of 
that  race  I  owe  a  debt  which  I  can  never  repay,  since  she 
took  me  almost  from  the  moment  that  I  was  bom.  "When 
I  opened  my  eyes  on  this  world,  almost  the  first  human 
face  into  which  I  looked  wore  a  dark  skin.  As  my  mother 
was  very  ill,  and  it  was  feared  nigh  unto  death,  I  was 
taken  away  from  her  to  the  Httle  cabin  of  a  poor  negro 
woman,  who  watched  over  me  with  a  mother's  tenderness  ; 
and  when  a  few  weeks  later  I  was  carried  to  the  old 
meeting-house  to  be  baptized,  it  was  in  her  black  arms 
that  I  was  held,  while  my  sainted  father  sprinkled  the 
water  on  my  little  head,  and  gave  me  the  name  of  an 
English  missionary,  whose  fame  was  then  in  all  the  Chris- 
tian world. 

As  this  black  woman,  who  was  known  by  the  name  of 
Mumbet  (a  contraction,  I  suppose,  for  Mammy  Betty), 
was  no  ordinary  person,  I  may  briefly  tell  her  history. 
She  was  born  a  slave,  not  far  from  the  Hudson  Biver 
— in  what  year  she  never  knew — but  was  bought  by 
Col.  Ashley  of  Sheffield,  Mass.,  when  she  was  still  such  a 


THE  COURAGE  OF  MUMBET.  133 

child  that  she  was  carried  on  the  straw  in  the  bottom  of  a 
sleigh  over  the  mountains  to  her  home  in  the  vaUey  of  the 
Housatonic.  As  she  grew  u^  she  was  noted  for  her  activ- 
ity and  courage,  and  her  high  spirit,  as  if  the  blood  of  old 
African  kings  was  flowing  in  her  veins.  She  was  ready  to 
do  any  amount  of  hard  work,  but  would  not  submit  to 
cruelty,  and  on  one  occasion,  when  her  mistress  in  a  fury 
of  passion  struck  at  her  sister  with  a  hot  shovel,  she  threw 
herself  between  them,  and  received  the  blow  on  her  arm, 
that  left  a  scar  which  she  carried  with  her  to  her  grave. 
From  that  moment  she  left  the  house  ;  neither  commands 
nor  entreaties  could  induce  her  to  return,  till  her  master 
resorted  to  the  law  to  gain  possession  of  his  slave.  Judge 
Sedgwick  of  Stockbridge  defended  her,  on  the  ground 
that  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  then  recently 
adopted,  had  declared  that  "  all  men  were  born  free  and 
equal."  The  court  sustained  him,  and  declared  that  she 
was  free.  Thus  slavery  was  abolished  in  Massachusetts, 
not  by  a  direct  act  of  legislation,  but  by  the  decision  of 
the  courts.  In  gratitude  to  her  defender  and  liberator,  she 
attached  herself  to  his  family,  in  which  she  remained  for 
many  years.  Devoting  herself  to  the  care  of  his  children 
and  his  property,  she  became  his  defender  as  he  had  been 
hers.  On  one  occasion,  in  Shays'  KebeUion  (which  caused 
so  much  trouble  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War), 
a  party  of  insurgents  came  to  the  house  to  search  for  the 
Judge,  and  went  into  every  room,  running  their  bayonets 
under  the  beds  to  find  him.  But  this  old  black  servant, 
who  had  the  heart  of  a  lioness,  confronted  them  at  every 
step,  following  them  up-stairs  and  down-stairs,  into  garret 
and  cellar,  armed  with  a  huge  shovel  with  which  she  could 
have  dealt  a  tremendous  blow.  Hearing  them  speak  of 
a  favorite  horse  which  they  would  take  with  them,  she 
flew  to  the  stable,  and  led  it  to  the  road,  and  then  with  a 


134  mumbet's  epitaph. 

blow  sent  it  flying  till  it  was  out  of  sight.  Thus  she  out- 
witted them,  and  sent  them  away  with  scorn,  remaining 
"  solitary  and  alone,"  proud  mistress  of  the  scene. 

But  the  greatest  proof  of  gratitude  to  her  benefactor 
was  her  devotion  to  his  children,  who,  owing  to  the  pro- 
longed illness  of  their  mother,  were  left  almost  wholly  to 
the  care  of  this  old  family  servant.  Better  care  they  could 
not  have  had.  So  attached  to  her  did  they  become,  that 
it  is  safe  to  say  that,  next  to  their  mother,  they  loved  this 
faithful  creature. 

It  was  long  after  the  youngest  of  that  family  had  been 
reared  to  manhood  and  womanhood,  that  I  fell  into  the 
same  loving  hands,  and  what  she  did  for  them  she  did  for 
me.  Thus  my  acquaintance  with  the  colored  race  began 
very  early,  indeed  with  my  very  existence.  And  though 
so  long  ago,  it  would  be  ungrateful  even  at  this  distance  of 
years  to  disown  the  obligation. 

In  the  village  burial  ground,  where  are  gathered  in  one 
enclosure  the  members  of  that  distinguished  family,  this 
old  negro  woman  is  laid  by  the  side  of  Miss  Catherine 
Sedgwick,  the  celebrated  authoress — I  presume  at  her 
request,  from  a  natural  feeling  that  even  in  death  she 
would  nestle  in  her  old  nurse's  arms.  On  the  plain  stone 
that  marks  her  grave  is  the  following  inscription  : 

ELIZABETH  FEEEMAN 

known  by  the  name  of 

MUMBET 

died  Dec.  28,  1829. 

Her  supposed  age  was  85  years. 

She  was  born  a  slave  and  remained  a  slave  nearly  Jbhirty 

years.    She  could  neither  read  nor  write,  yet  in  her  own  sphere 

she  had  no  superior  nor  equal.    She  neither  wasted  time  nor 

property.    She  never  violated  a  trust,  nor  failed  to  perform  a 

duty.    In  every  situation  of  domestic  trial  she  was  the  most 

efficient  helper  and  the  tenderest  friend.     Good  mother,  farewell ! 


ANOTHER  NOTED  CHARACTER.  135 

Was  ever  a  more  beautiful  tribute  paid  to  womanly 
fidelity  and  devotion  ?  As  I  stand  by  that  grave  I  think 
what  I  too  owe  to  that  fidelity  which  "never  violated  a 
trust,  nor  failed  to  perform  a  duty."  As  after  her  death, 
one  of  the  Sedgwicks,  paying  a  tribute  to  her  memory, 
said,  "But  for  her  care  I  should  not  now  probably  be 
living  to  give  this  testimony,"  so  it  may  have  been  in  my 
case.  When  I  think  of  this  :  that  I  may  have  owed  my 
life  to  the  care  that  watched  over  my  helpless  infancy,  I 
cannot  recall  the  name  of  that  faithful  woman  without  a 
feeling  of  love  and  of  gratitude,  that  predisposes  me  to  a 
kindly  interest  in  aU  her  unhappy  race. 

But  the  genius  of  those  old  Africans  did  not  run  whoUy 
to  the  woman  side.  There  was  a  man  in  the  to^vn  who  was 
an  equally  noted  character.  This  was  "Agrippa  HuU," 
whose  life  began  towards  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
and  who  had  been  in  the  Revolutionary  Army  from  near 
the  beginning  to  the  very  end  of  the  war,  though  not  for 
the  most  part  as  a  soldier,  but  a  servant,  in  which  capacity 
he  was  for  four  years  attached  to  Kosciusko,  whom  he 
accompanied  in  his  Southern  campaigns.  He  used  to  teU 
of  bloody  scenes  that  he  witnessed,  especially  at  the  hard- 
fought  battle  of  Eutaw  Springs,  where  his  part  was  to  hold 
the  wounded  as  they  were  laid  upon  the  operating  board 
to  have  their  limbs  amputated — "  the  hardest  day's  work," 
he  said,  "that  he  ever  did  in  his  life." 

These  trying  scenes  were  sometimes  varied  by  those  of  a 
di£ferent  character.  He  used  to  teU  a  story  that  reflected 
on  himseK,  but  showed  in  a  pleasant  light  the  good  nature 
of  5^osciusko.  On  one  occasion  the  General  had  been 
invited  by  a  neighboring  planter  to  go  with  him  on  a 
hunting  excursion,  and  rode  off,  expecting  not  to  return 
tiU  the  next  day.  Having  the  field  all  to  himself,  Agrippa 
set  out  to  make  the  most  of  it ;  and  arrayed  himself  in  his 


136  ANECDOTE  OF  KOSCIUSKO. 

master's  uniform,  with  the  military  cap  on  his  -woolly  head 
and  sword  in  hand,  wherewith  he  figured  as  a  foreign  offi- 
cer, even  to  imitating  the  broken  English  of  the  distin- 
guished Pole — a  performance  that  was  greatly  to  the 
amusement  of  the  soldiers  and  camp-followers  ;  until 
suddenly  the  General,  having  been  overtaken  and  driven 
back  by  a  thunderstorm,  rode  up!  Poor  Agrippa  was 
ready  to  sink  into  the  earth,  expecting  severe  punishment. 
But  to  his  surprise,  the  General  entered  into  the  humor  oi 
the  thing,  and  burst  into  a  hearty  laugh,  adding  "  This  is 
too  good  to  keep,"  and  immediately  had  his  black  imitator 
mounted  on  a  horse,  and  sent  through  the  camp,  to  the 
unbounded  merriment  of  the  soldiers.  This  was  worse  than 
being  flogged  or  put  in  irons,  and  Agrippa  used  to  say  that 
he  would  rather  have  been  drummed  out  of  camp  to  the 
tune  of  the  Rogue's  March,  than  be  made  such  a  laughing- 
stock. However,  the  joke  answered  one  good  purpose,  as 
this  mirthful  scene  was  a  relief  to  grim-visaged  war,  and 
made  a  welcome  diversion  to  the  monotonous  life  of  soldiers 
far  from  home,  in  the  gloom  of  the  Southern  forests. 

Of  course  Agrippa  had  many  stories  to  tell  of  the  great 
men  whom  he  met  at  the  headquarters  of  Kosciusko.  He 
was  very  proud  when  now  and  then  he  had  the  honor  of 
holding  the  bridle  for  Washington,  as  he  mounted  to  ride 
to  the  field.  It  was  one  of  the  delights  of  my  boyish 
days  to  go  to  the  little  house  of  this  old  African,  and  hear 
him  tell  of  those  times  of  war,  with  all  their  scenes  so 
strange  and  stirring. 

He  had  a  great  deal  of  mother  wit,  which  shone  out 
most  at  weddings  and  other  festive  occasions,  when  he 
passed  round  the  cake  and  wine — for  sixty  years  ago  there 
could  be  no  wedding  without  wine  :  the  parties  would 
hardly  have  thought  themselves  legally  married.  As  he 
made  the  circuit  of  the  company,  he  had  some  joke  for 


THE  DEAR  OLD  SAINTS  IN  BLACK.  13t 

every  one  ;  lie  even  noticed  poor  little  me,  for  I  was  then 
a  very  minute  specimen  of  humanity,  and  I  counted  it  a 
mark  of  distinction,  when  he  patted  me  on  the  head,  and 
bestowed  his  approbation  in  the  highly  musical  lines — 

"  Henry  Martyn 
Is  a  gentleman  for  sartin," 

which  I  cherish  to  this  day,  as  the  first  and  only  instance 
in  which  my  name  has  been  embalmed  in  poetry  ! 

Though  he  knew  his  place  perfectly,  yet  he  could  hold 
his  own  with  the  best  of  white  folks ;  and  if  anybody 
snubbed  him  for  his  color,  he  would  not  be  offended,  but 
answer  pleasantly  that  "  many  a  good  book  was  bound  in 
black,  and  that  the  cover  did  not  matter  so  much  as  the 
contents,"  ending  the  brief  passage  of  words  b}^  asking, 
"  Which  is  the  worse  :  the  white  black  man  or  the  black 
white  man — to  be  black  outside  or  to  be  black  inside  ?  " 

Agrippa  and  Mumbet !  what  a  couple  they  make ! 
When  I  think  of  these  dear  old  souls,  how  can  I  help 
loving  them  ?  Both  ripened  with  age,  as  religion  came  to 
give  the  crowning  grace  to  their  characters.  Agrippa  was 
not,  when  young,  at  all  religiously  inclined.  The  army 
was  not  a  good  school  of  religion  or  of  morals,  and  many 
of  those  who  came  back  from  the  wars  were  more  given  to 
drinking  and  cursing  than  to  prayer.  But  a  more  quiet 
and  peaceful  life,  with  the  influences 'of  his  New  England 
surroundings,  made  him  a  new  man  ;  and  in  the  prayer- 
meetings  no  one  was  more  fervent  than  Agrippa.  The 
memory  of  his  past  life  seemed  to  be  a  constant  source  of 
humiliation,  and  his  penitence  showed  itself  in  his  confes- 
sions and  prayers  for  forgiveness.  Sometimes  his  language 
was  a  little  too  strong,  as  when  he  thanked  God  that 
"  white  folks  were  so  kind  to  a  poor  old  black  nigger "  ; 
and  again  he  used  homely  phrases,  as  when  he  besought 


138  THE  minister's  WOOING. 

the  Lord  "  that  every  tub  might  stand  on  its  owi  bot- 
tom "  ;  which,  however,  was  not  so  grotesque  as  the  prayer 
of  a  noted  Baptist  preacher  of  the  county — a  white  man 
at  that — Elder  Leland,  who  (if  we  may  believe  the  rustic 
chroniclers  of  the  time,  and  who  would  doubt  them?)  once 
prayed  "that  we  might  all  hitch  our  horses  together  in 
God's  everlasting  stable"!  But  words  are  little  where 
the  heart  is  found,  and  quaint  as  might  be  the  words  of 
poor  Agrippa,  none  who  heard  him  could  doubt  that  his 
prayers  went  up  like  sweet  incense  to  the  throne  ;  and  as 
for  Mumbet,  though  her  skin  was  black,  her  heart  was 
white,  and  she  too,  like  so  many'of  her  race,  is  now  with- 
out fault  before  the  throne  of  God. 

Of  course  there  were  not  many  such  characters  any- 
where. But  here  and  there  the  like  of  this  old  nurse 
might  be  found  in  the  early  days  of  New  England.  Gen- 
erally they  were  the  retainers  of  rich  families,  in  which 
they  had  lived  for  years,  tiU  they  became  an  important, 
and  almost  necessary,  part  of  the  establishment.  As  I 
have  taken  one  instance  from  my  own  very  limited  expe- 
rience, I  will  venture  to  add  another  from  fiction,  inasmuch 
as  the  character  is  drawn  from  real  life.  Many  of  my 
readers  are  familiar  with  "The  Minister's  Wooing,"  by 
Mrs.  Stowe,  the  scene  of  which  is  laid  in  Newport :  that, 
before  the  Revolution  and  some  years  after,  was  the  chief 
Northern  port  for  the  importation  of  slaves  from  Africa ; 
and  here  were  found  in  the  godly  families  of  Puritan 
New  England,  servants  that  had  been  born  on  the  other 
side  of  the  ocean,  on  the  dark  slave  coast ;  some  of  whom, 
in  disproof  of  the  common  idea  that  native  Africans  are 
all  of  a  low  type  of  humanity,  possessed  great  natural 
intelligence ;  and  though,  like  Mumbet,  they  "  could 
neither  read  nor  write,"  showed  such  strength  of  char- 
acter that  they  became  the  stay  and  staff  of  their  house- 


**  CANDACE  "  AND  THE  ''  CATECHIZE.''  139 

holds,  and  were  "in  every  situation  of  domestic  trial  the 
most  efficient  helpers  and  the  tenderest  friends."  Such 
an  one  was  "  Candace,"  *  who  proved  herself  in  her  new 
sphere  a  true  "  Queen  of  Ethiopia."  The  first  picture  we 
have  of  her,  presents  her  as  "  a.  powerfully  built,  majestic 
black  woman,  corpulent,  heavy,  with  a  swinging  majesty 
of  motion,  like  that  of  a  ship  in  a  ground  swell.  Her 
shining  black  skin  and  glistening  white  teeth  were  indica- 
tions of  perfect  physical  vigor  which  had  never  known  a 
day's  sickness  :  and  her  turban,  of  broad  red  and  yellow 
bandanna  stripes,  had  a  warm  tropical  glow." 

This  robust  exterior  was  the  fit  embodiment  of  a  mind 
of  great  native  independence,  which  did  not  hesitate  even 
to  wrestle  with  the  hard  theological  problems  of  the  day. 
As  she  was  under  the  ministry  of  old  Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins, 
the  great  theologian,  she  was  put  duly  through  the  Cate- 
chism, or  "  Catechize,"  as  she  called  it,  in  which  there  were 
some  things  hard  to  be  understood,  and  some  which  she 
flatly  rejected,  as,  for  instance,  being  held  responsible  for 
Adam's  sin,  to  which  she  said  : 

*«  I  didn't  do  dat  ar',  for  one,  I  knows.  I's  got  good  mem'ry — 
allers  knows  what  I  does — nebber  did  eat  dat  ar'  apple — nebber 
eat  a  bit  ob  him.     Don't  tell  me  !  " 

It  was  of  no  use  to  teU  her  of  all  the  explanations  of  this 
redoubtable  passage — of  potential  presence,  and  representative 
presence,  and  representative  identity,  and  federal  headship.  She 
met  all  with  the  dogged 

"Nebber  did  it,  I  knows;  should  'ave  'membered,  if  I  had. 
Don't  tell  me !  " 

And  even  in  the  catechizing  class  of  the  Doctor  himself,  if 
this  answer  came  to  her,  she  sat  black  and  frowning  in  stony 
silence  even  in  his  reverend  presence. 

*  The  original  of  this  remarkable  character,  I  am  told,  was  an 
old  servant  in  the  family  of  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  when  he  lived 
in  Litchfield,  Conn. 


140  A  REMARKABLE  CONVERSION. 

From  this  error  slie  was  reclairaed  by  a  personal 
influence  which  has  been  known  to  change  other  than 
dark-skinned  unbeUevers.  It  was  a  mysterious  conversion, 
which  came  in  this  way  : 

Candace  was  often  reminded  that  the  Doctor  believed  the 
Catechism,  and  that  she  was  dijffering  from  a  great  and  good 
man ;  but  the  argument  made  no  manner  of  impression  on  her, 
till  one  day,  a  far-off  cousin  of  hers,  whose  condition  under  a 
hard  master  had  often  moved  her  compassion,  came  in  overjoyed 
to  recount  to  her  how,  owing  to  Dr.  Hopkins's  exertions,  he  had 
gained  his  freedom.  The  Doctor  himself  had  in  person  gone 
from  house  to  house,  raising  the  sum  for  his  redemption ;  and 
when  more  yet  was  wanting,  supplied  it  by  paying  half  his  last 
quarter's  limited  salary. 

"  He  do  dat  ar'  ?  "  said  Candace,  dropping  the  fork  wherewith 
she  was  spearing  doughnuts.  "Den  I'm  gwine  to  b'liebe  ebery 
word  lie  does ! " 

And  accordingly,  at  the  next  catechizing,  the  Doctor's  aston_ 
ishment  was  great  when  Candace  pressed  up  to  him,  exclaim ing^ 

"De  Lord  bress  you,  Doctor,  for  opening  the  prison  for  dem 
dat  is  bound  !  I  b'liebes  in  you  now.  Doctor.  I's  gwine  to  b'liebe 
ebery  word  you  say.  I'll  say  de  Catechize  now— fix  it  any  way 
you  like.  I  did  eat  dat  ar'  apple— I  eat  de  whole  tree,  an'  swal- 
lowed ebery  bit  ob  it,  if  you  say  so." 

K  those  who  read  this  with  a  smile  infer  from  it  that 
the  faith  of  such  a  woman  was  a  mere  assent  to  whatever 
she  was  told,  they  would  be  greatly  mistaken.  Keligion 
was  the  very  core  of  her  being,  but  it  was  a  religion  which 
had  an  African  type.  It  did  not  come  through  the  intel- 
lect, by  any  form  of  reasoning,  but  through  the  heart,  and 
was  hence  far  more  powerful  than  any  conversion  worked 
out  through  a  process  of  the  understanding,  as  it  enabled 
this  poor  black  woman  to  be  a  minister  of  consolation, 
when  the  great  divine,  to  whom  she  looked  up  with  awe, 
would  have  driven  a  poor,  unhappy  soul  to  despaii'. 


THE  SHIPWRECKED  SON.  141 

The  crisis  came  in  tlie  family  of  Squire  Marvin,  in 
which  Candace  lived,  when  the  report  came  that  a  son  who 
had  run  away  and  gone  to  sea,  had  been  lost.  Far  away 
on  the  other  side  of  the  world,  the  ship  had  gone  down 
with  all  on  board.  The  terrible  tidings  threw  the  poor 
mother  into  an  agony  of  despair,  which  was  not  relieved  at 
all,  but  rather  intensified,  by  her  religious  belief,  for  it 
compelled  her  to  think  that  her  son  had  not  only  lost 
his  life,  but  his  soul !  The  cold,  hard  creed  of  the  day 
made  light  of  human  suffering.  Human  beings  were  but 
"  worms  of  the  dust,"  mere  animalculse,  cast  into  the  great 
crushing  machine  of  the  Almighty  decrees,  to  be  ground 
to  powder  and  blown  to  the  winds.  "What  mattered  it? 
Though  this  "  machine  "  crushed  man  to  atoms  ;  though 
it  broke  every  bone  in  his  body  ;  though  his  flesh  was  torn 
and  bleeding,  and  his  very  soul  doomed  and  damned  ;  yet 
the  mild-eyed  preacher  looked  on  with  serene  complacency, 
believing  that  it  was  all  for  the  glory  of  God,  in  compari- 
son with  which  the  happiness  of  the  whole  human  race  was 
not  of  the  slightest  consequence. 

This  might  be  orthodox  divinity,  but  it  was  terrible  for 
a  mother  in  agony  for  her  son.  What  comfort  could  she 
find  in  a  great  machine,  rolling  on  piteously,  crushing 
human  hearts  and  hopes?  Under  this  strain  the  poor 
woman  was  driven  almost  to  insanity.  Her  husband,  well 
meaning  (but  awkward  and  clumsy,  as  men  are  apt  to  be 
in  such  circumstances),  came  into  the  room,  and  tried  to 
take  her  in  his  arms  ;  but  she  pushed  him  away,  with  the 
piercing  shriek,  "  Leave  me  alone  !  I  am  a  lost  spirit ! " 
What  followed  can  only  be  told  by  the  writer,  whose  pow- 
erful pen  alone  is  adequate  to  describe  the  scene  : 

At  this  moment,  Candace,  who  had  been  anxiously  listening 
at  the  door  for  an  hour  past,  suddenly  burst  into  tlie  room. 

**Lor'  bress  ye,  Squire  Marvyn,  we  won't  hab  her  goin'  on  dis 


142  THE  OLD  BLACK  AUNTY. 

yer  way,"  she  said.     **  Do  talk  gospel  to  her,  can't  ye  ?— ef  you 
can't,  I  will. 

**  Come,  ye  poor  little  lamb,"  she  said,  walking  straight  up  to 
Mrs.  Marvyn,  *'  come  to  old  Candace  ! " — and  with  that  she  gath- 
ered the  pale  form  to  her  bosom,  and  sat  down  and  began  rocking 
her,  as  if  she  had  been  a  babe.  *'  Honey,  darlin',  ye  a'n't  right — 
dar's  a  drefful  mistake  somewhar,"  she  said.  **  Why,  de  Lord 
a'n't  like  what  ye  tink — He  loves  ye,  honey !  Why,  jes'  feel  how  I 
loves  ye— poor  ole  black  Candace— an'  I  a'n't  better'n  Him  as 
made  me !  Who  was  it  wore  de  crown  o'  thorns,  lamb  ?— who 
was  it  sweat  great  drops  o'  blood  ?— who  was  it  said  *  Father, 
forgive  dem '  ?  Say,  honey ! — wasn't  it  de  Lord  dat  made  ye  ? — 
Dar,  dar,  now  ye'r'  cryin' !— cry  away  and  ease  yer  poor  little 
heart !  He  died  for  Mass'r  Jim— loved  him  and  died  for  him — jes' 
give  up  His  sweet,  precious  body  and  soul  for  him  on  de  Cross  ! 
Laws,  jes'  leave  him  in  Jesus'  hands !  Why,  honey,  dar's  de  very 
print  o'  de  nails  in  His*  hands  now !  " 

The  flood-gates  were  rent ;  and  healing  sobs  and  tears  shook 
the  frail  form,  as  a  faded  lily  shakes  under  the  soft  rains  of 
Summer.    All  in  the  room  wept  together. 

"Now,  honey,"  said  Candace,  after  a  pause  of  some  minutes, 
**I  knows  our  Doctor's  a  mighty  good  man,  an'  larned— an'  in 
fair  weather  I  ha'n't  no  'bjection  to  yer  hearin'  all  about  dese  yer 
great  an'  mighty  tings  he's  got  to  say.  But,  honey,  dey  won't 
do  for  you  now ;  sick  folks  mus'n't  hab  strong  meat ;  an'  times 
like  dese,  dar  jes'  a'n't  but  one  ting  to  come  to,  an'  dat  ar's  Jesus. 
Jes'  come  right  down  to  whar  poor  ole  black  Candace  has  to  stay 
allers — it's  a  good  place,  darlin' !  Look  right  at  Jesus.  Tell  ye, 
honey,  ye  can't  live  no  other  way  now.  Don't  ye  'member  how 
He  looked  on  His  mother,  when  she  stood  faintin'  an'  tremblin' 
under  de  Cross,  jes'  like  you  ?  He  knows  all  about  mothers* 
hearts ;  He  won't  break  yours.  It  was  jes'  'cause  He  know'd 
we'd  come  into  straits  like  dis  yer,  dat  He  went  through  all  dese 
tings— Him,  de  Lord  o'  Glory!  Is  dis  Him  you  was  a-talkin* 
about  ? — Him  you  can't  love  ?  Look  at  Him,  an'  see  ef  you  can't. 
Look  an'  see  what  He  is !— don't  ask  no  questions,  an'  don't  go 
to  no  reasonin's — jes'  look  at  Him,  hangin'  dar,  so  sweet  an' 
patient,  on  de  Cross !  All  dey  could  do  couldn't  stop  His  lovin' 
'em ;  He  prayed  for  'em  wid  all  de  breath  He  had.  Dar's  a  God 
you  can  love,  a'n't  dar  ?    Candace  loves  Him — poor,  ole,  foolish, 


COMFORTING  THE  BROKEN-HEARTED  MOTHER.      143 

black,  wicked  Candace— an'  she  knows  He  loves  her  " — and  here 
Candace  broke  down  into  torrents  of  weeping. 

They  laid  the  mother,  faint  and  weary,  on  her  bed,  and 
beneath  the  shadow  of  that  suffering  Cross  came  down  a  healing 
sleep  on  those  weary  eyelids. 

*♦  Honey,"  said  Candace,  mysteriously,  after  she  had  drawn 
Mary  out  of  the  room,  "  don't  ye  go  for  to  troublin'  yer  mind  wid 
dis  yer.  I'm  clar  Mass'r  James  is  one  o'  de  'lect ;  and  I'm  clar 
dar's  consid'able  more  o'  de  'lect  dan  people  tink.  Why,  Jesus 
didn't  die  for  nothin' — all  dat  love  a'n't  gwine  to  be  wasted.  De 
'lect  is  more'n  you  or  I  knows,  honey !  Dar's  de  Spirit — He'll 
give  it  to  'em ;  an'  ef  Mass'r  James  is  called  an'  took,  depend 
upon  it  de  Lord  has  got  him  ready — course  He  has — so  don't  ye 
go  to  layin'  on  your  poor  heart  what  no  mortal  cretur  can  live 
under,  'cause,  as  we's  got  to  live  in  dis  yer  world,  it's  quite  clar 
de  Lord  must  ha'  fixed  it  so  we  can,  and  ef  tings  was  as  some 
folks  suppose,  why,  we  couldn't  live,  and  dar  wouldn't  be  no 
sense  in  any  ting  dat  goes  on." 

This  was  the  very  oil  of  consolation  poured  on  the 
wounds  and  bruises  of  that  great  agony.  The  poor  black 
woman  had  done  what  the  learned  theologian  could  not 
do.  To  the  mother  in  her  anguish,  this  simple  Gospel 
was  better  than  the  whole  Hopkinsian  theology.  What 
does  one  care  for  any  "  system  "  when  the  heart  is  break- 
ing? It  needs  only  to  be  brought  into  the  immediate 
presence  of  Christ  the  Consoler.  It  is  one  great  gift  of 
the  African  nature,  that  it  takes  hold  of  the  Living  Person, 
rather  than  of  the  abstract  idea.  It  does  not  come  to  its 
perfect  trust  by  any  logical  process,  but  by  the  instinct 
of  love  and  gratitude,  clinging  to  the  Master  as  a  ship- 
wrecked sailor  cUngs  to  the  life-boat  in  a  stormy  sea. 
There  are  times  when  the  tropical  fervor  of  the  African 
"  fuses  "  the  Gospel  so  as  to  take  in  its  vital  glow  and  heat 
when  the  larger  brain  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  would  remain 
cold  and  insensible. 

These  are  pleasant  pictures  to  dweU  upon  of  the  colored 


144  THE  COLORED  PEOPLE  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

race  in  the  early  days  of  New  England,  recalling  as  they 
do  the  sweet  Arcadian  simplicity  of  that  olden  time  which 
has  passed  away.  Who  of  my  readers  has  not  known  such 
dear  old  saints  in  black,  who  have  long  since  'gone  to 
glory,"  and  who  that  remembers  them  can  help  feeling  the 
warmest  regard  for  this  simple  and  affectionate  race  ? 

From  the  past  we  turn  to  the  present,  and  ask  for  the 
children  of  these  fathers  and  mothers.  With  such  grand 
characters  as  examples,  they  would  seem  to  need  only  to 
have  their  limbs  unbound  by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  to 
start  forward  in  a  career  of  progress  that  should  furnish 
the  decisive  proof  of  the  capacity  of  the  African  race. 
And  yet  here  we  are  doomed  to  a  great  disappointment. 
The  black  man  has  had  every  right  that  belongs  to  his 
white  neighbor  :  not  only  the  natural  rights  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  belong  to  every 
human  being — the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness — but  the  right  to  vote,  and  to  have  a  part  in 
making  the  laws.  He  could  own  his  little  home,  and  there 
sit  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  with  none  to  molest 
or  make  him  afraid.  His  children  could  go  to  the  same 
common  schools,  and  sit  on  the  same  benches,  and  learn 
the  same  lessons,  as  white  children. 

With  such  advantages,  a  race  that  had  natural  genius 
ought  to  have  made  great  progress  in  a  hundred  years. 
But  where  are  the  men  that  it  should  have  produced  to  be 
the  leaders  of  their  people?  We  find  not  one  who  has 
taken  rank  as  a  man  of  action  or  a  man  of  thought :  as 
a  thinker  or  a  writer  ;  as  artist  or  poet ;  discoverer  or 
inventor.  The  whole  race  has  remained  on  one  dead  level 
of  mediocrity. 

If  any  man  ever  proved  himself  a  friend  of  the  African 
race  it  was  Theodore  Parker,  who  endured  all  sorts  of  perse- 
cution and  social  ostracism,  who  faced  mobs,  and  was  hissed 


HAVE  THEY  MADE  ANY  PROGRESS  ?  145 

and  hooted  in  public  meetings,  for  his  bold  championship 
of  the  rights  of  the  negro  race.  But  rights  are  one  thing, 
and  capacity  is  another.  And  while  he  was  ready  to  fight 
for  them,  he  was  very  despondent  as  to  their  capacity  for 
rising  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  Indeed  he  said  in  so 
many  words  :  "  In  respect  to  the  power  of  civilization,  the 
African  is  at  the  bottom,  the  American  Indian  next."  In 
1857  he  wrote  to  a  friend  :  "  There  are  inferior  races  which 
have  always  borne  the  same  ignoble  relation  to  the  rest  of 
men,  and  always  will.  In  two  generations  what  a  change 
there  will  be  in  the  condition  and  character  of  the  Irish  in 
New  England!  But  in  twenty  generations  the  negroes 
wiU  stand  just  where  they  are  now ;  that  is,  if  they  have 
not  disappeared.  In  Massachusetts  there  are  no  laws  now 
to  keep  the  black  man  from  any  pursuit,  any  office  that  he 
will ;  but  there  has  never  been  a  rich  negro  in  New  Eng- 
land ;  not  a  man  with  ten  thousand  doUars,  perhaps  none 
with  five  thousand  dollars ;  none  eminent  in  anything, 
except  the  calling  of  a  waiter." 

That  was  more  than  thirty  years  ago.  But  to-day  I 
look  about  me  here  in  Massachusetts,  and  I  see  a  few 
colored  men  ;  but  what  are  they  doing  ?  They  work  in 
the  fields  ;  they  hoe  corn  ;  they  dig  potatoes  ;  the  women 
take  in  washing.  I  find  colored  barbers  and  white- 
washers,  shoe-blacks  and  chimney-sweeps;  but  I  do  not 
know  a  single  man  who  has  grown  to  be  a  merchant  or  a 
banker ;  a  judge,  or  a  lawyer  ;  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture, or  a  justice  of  the  peace,  or  even  a  selectman  of 
the  town.  In  all  these  respects  they  remain  where  they 
were  in  the  days  of  our  fathers.  The  best  friends  of  the 
colored  race — of  whom  I  am  one — ^must  confess  that  it  is 
disappointing  and  discouraging  to  find  that,  with  all  these 
oppoiiunities,  they  are  little  removed  from  where  they 
were  a  hundred  years  ago. 


146  MORE  FAVORABLE  TESTIMONY. 

In  the  above  I  have  spoken  only  from  my  own  observa- 
tion, and  am  therefore  equally  surprised  and  gratified  to 
find  that  others,  with  wider  opportunities,  find  more  that 
is  hopeful  and  encouraging.  Thus  Mr.  A.  H.  Grimke,  a 
colored  man,  who  is  a  lawyer  in  Hyde  Park,  near  Boston, 
reports  as  follows  : 

"There  are  about  a  dozen  colored  lawyers  in  Massachusetts, 
a  majority  of  whom  are  justices  of  the  peace.  There  has  been  a 
colored  man  in  the  Legislature  every  year  since  1882.  Prior  to 
that  period,  there  was  a  colored  member  of  the  Legislature  every 
second  or  third  year  since  the  close  of  the  war.  Twice  during 
these  periods,  two  colored  men  were  members  at  the  same  time. 
Every  year  there  are  three  or  four  colored  members  of  the 
Republican  State  Convention,  and  this  year  there  was  a  colored 
member  of  the  Democratic  State  Convention  as  well.  Mr.  J.  C. 
Chappelle  is  at  present  a  member  of  the  Republican  State  Central 
Committee.  In  my  own  town  of  Hyde  Park,  a  colored  man  is 
Sealer  of  Weights  and  Measures.  If  you  will  allow  a  personal 
reference,  I  am  one  of  the  trustees  of  a  public  institution  (the 
Westborough  Insane  Hospital),  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
important  in  the  State,  and  I  am,  in  addition.  Secretary  of  the 
Board.  The  expenditures  of  this  hospital  are  about  $100,000  a 
year.  Judge  Ruffin  was  appointed  Judge  of  the  Charlestown 
Municipal  Court  in  1883,  and  filled  the  position  with  credit  to 
himself  and  the  community  until  his  death  about  throe  years 
afterwards.  Dr.  Grant  is  one  of  the  best  dentists  in  Boston,  and 
has  a  large  practice  among  both  races.  He  is  a  man  of  inventive 
skill  in  his  profession.  His  invention  in  relation  to  cleft  plates 
is  well  known  here  and  elsewhere.  Besides,  he  has  been  for 
years  an  instructor  in  the  Dental  College  connected  with  Harvard 
University — mechanical  dentistry  being  his  department.  John 
H.  Lewis  has  a  merchant  tailoring  establishment  in  "Washington 
street,  Boston,  and  does  the  second  largest  business  in  New 
England.  His  transactions  annually  exceed  $100,000;  he  has 
just  started  a  branch  store  in  Providence,  R.  I.  Mr.  Joseph  Lee 
is  owner  and  proprietor  of  one  of  the  first-class  hotels  of  the 
East.  The  richest  people  of  the  State  are  guests  at  the  Wood- 
land Park  Hotel,  at  Auburndale.  His  business  is  rapidly  increas- 
ing, he  has  already  enlarged  the  original  building,  and  is  about 


NOT  TWO  RACES,  BUT  THREE.  147 

to  enlarge  a  second  time  to  meet  the  increasing  demands  of  the 
public.  The  property  is  valued  at  about  $120,000.  Beside  Mr. 
Lewis  above  mentioned,  there  are  three  colored  merchant  tailors 
doing  a  handsome  business  in  Boston. 

"  In  New  Bedford,  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  drug  stores  is 
owned  and  conducted  by  a  young  colored  man.  In  that  city  the 
colored  people  are  butchers,  fruiterers,  grocers,  master  ship- 
builders, etc.  Colored  young  women  have  taught  in  the  public 
schools  of  Boston  within  the  past  few  years,  and  one.  Miss 
Baldwin,  has  been  for  some  years  one  of  the  most  popular 
teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  Cambridge." 

This  is  very  gratifying  :  and  it  is  from  no  wish  to  be- 
little its  significance,  that  I  suggest,  that  if  it  be  made  a 
test  of  the  capacity  of  a  race,  it  would  be  necessary  to  press 
the  inquiry  a  little  farther.  Dr.  Blyden,  who  has  himself 
no  tinge  of  whiteness,  and  is  very  proud  of  his  pure  African 
blood,  says  :  "  You  talk  of  two  races,  but  there  are  three  !  " 
Such  is  the  division  in  Jamaica,  where  they  are  distin- 
guished as  the  whites  and  the  blacks  and  the  browns;  and 
it  is  said  that  the  browns  are  much  more  particular  than 
the  whites  in  standing  aloof  from  the  blacks.  It  is  to  the 
credit  of  the  mulattoes  of  this  country,  that  they  cast  in 
theh'  lot  with  the  weaker  race,  but  in  distinguishing  what 
is  due  to  native  genius,  we  must  recognize  that  it  is  not 
commonly  the  pure  African  who  comes  to  the  front.  Of 
this  Mr.  Grimk^  is  himself  a  proof :  for  the  colored  men 
in  the  North  who  bear  that  honored  name,  have  the  best 
white  blood  of  South  Carolina  in  their  veins.  But  putting 
every  one  of  these  to  the  account,  how  far  could  a  dozen 
or  two  of  isolated  individuals,  go  to  prove  the  capacity  of 
a  whole  race,  the  mass  of  whom  are  stiU  far,  far  behind  ? 

With  this  experience  of  slow  progress  here  in  our  own 
New  England,  it  might  be  in  better  taste  to  be  a  little 
more  guarded  and  careful  in  judging  our  brethren  of  the 
South,  where  the  failure  of  the  blacks  to  improve  their  con- 


148  EQUAL  LAWS. 

dition  is  ascribed  to  "unjust  laws,"  to  "race- prejudice," 
to  the  "  color-line,"  and  to  every  other  cause  except  natu- 
ral incapacity  or  want  of  application.  But  can  we  truly 
say  that  they  impose  hardships  upon  the  negro  from  which 
he  is  free  at  the  North  ;  that  he  has  here  rights  and  oppor- 
tunities that  are  denied  to  him  there  ?  Do  a  few  degrees 
of  latitude  make  so  great  a  difference  in  his  position  ? 

The  first  charge  in  the  indictment  against  the  South,  is 
"unjust  laws  "  !  But  what  laws  ?  Are  not  the  laws  affect- 
ing human  rights  the  same  in  all  parts  of  the  country  ? 

I  am  now  writing  in  New  England,  where  the  very  air 
that  blows  over  the  hills  is  an  inspiration  of  liberty. 
This  grand  old  State  of  Massachusetts,  in  which  I  was 
born,  is  my  model  of  a  free  commonwealth,  a  genuine 
democracy  of  the  highest  kind,  in  which  there  is  an  abso- 
lute equality  of  civil  rights,  and  the  nearest  approach  to 
an  equality  of  conditions.  This  is  a  reflection  very  grati- 
fying to  our  State  pride,  all  the  more  as  it  is  in  such  con- 
trast with  what  we  are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  South, 
but  just  emerged  from  the  barbarism  of  slavery. 

But  as  I  am  indulging  in  this  comparison,  so  flattering 
to  ourselves  and  so  disparaging  to  others,  I  begin  to  reflect 
that  perhaps  I  have  forgotten  the  changes  wrought  by  the 
war  :  the  great  Act  of  Emancipation,  and  the  amendments 
to  the  Constitution,  which  guarantee  to  all  the  same  civil 
rights,  "without  distinction  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude."  This  is  broad  enough  to  cover 
"  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men."  It  is  the  law,  not  for 
one  State  alone,  but  for  all ;  and  hence  it  follows  that  the 
status  of  the  negro  at  the  South  is  precisely  the  same — 
so  far  as  the  law  is  concerned — as  at  the  North  ;  he  has 
exactly  the  same  rights  in  South  Carolina,  that  he  has  here 
in  good  old  Massachusetts ! 

The  statement  put  in  this  frank,  blunt  way,  is  somewhat 


GENERAL  ARMSTRONG.  149 

startling  :  it  is  what  Dick  Swiveller  would  call  *'  an  unmit- 
igated staggerer,"  and  we  do  not  quite  like  to  admit  it, 
and  would  not,  if  the  words  were  not  so  plain  that  there 
can  be  but  one  interpretation. 

But  here  a  friend,  seeing  my  perplexity,  comes  to  my 
relief  by  saying  "  Oh,  well !  it  is  not  the  law  of  which  we 
complain — that  is  all  right  enough  ;  but  it  is  the  color  line 
that  runs  through  everything  at  the  South — the  bitter 
prejudice  against  the  black  race — which  is  so  unjust  and 
so  cruel." 

This  gives  a  new  turn  to  my  thoughts,  and  as  I  sit  brood- 
ing over  it,  I  am  happy  to  see  another  friend  appear,  who 
can  enlighten  me  on  the  subject.  It  is  General  Armstrong, 
the  head  of  the  famous  Hampton  School  in  Virginia.  He 
is  a  typical  American  ;  born  in  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
the  son  of  a  missionary;  educated  at  WiUiams  College 
in  Massachusetts,  which  he  left  to  enter  the  army,  and 
fought  bravely  at  Gettysburg  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  war 
was  placed  in  charge  of  the  "contrabands"  who  were 
gathered  in  great  numbers  at  Fortress  Monroe,  out  of 
which  grew  in  time  an  institution  for  teaching  them  both 
to  read  and  to  work.  To  this  he  has  given  more  than 
twenty  years  of  the  hardest  labor,  till  under  his  care  it  has 
grown  to  great  proportions  ;  sending  out  from  year  to 
year  hundreds  of  young  men,  with  an  education  sufficient 
to  be  able  to  teach  others ;  and  who,  at  the  same  time, 
while  supporting  themselves  by  manual  labor,  have  learned 
some  useful  industry,  by  which  they  can  afterwards  take 
care  of  themselves.  In  carrying  out  this  grand  design, 
General  Armstrong  has  been  a  public  benefactor.  No  man 
in  this  country  has  done  more  for  the  education  and  eleva- 
tion of  the  colored  race.  No  man  understands  better  aU 
the  conditions  of  the  Race  Problem,  as  it  is  now  being 
worked  out  in  the  Southern  States.    To  him  therefore  I 


150  THE  COLOR  LINE  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

turn  eagerly,  enlarging  with  virtuous  indignation  on  the 
"  color  line "  that  is  kept  up  at  the  South  and  the  race- 
hatred, when  I  am  taken  aback  at  hearing  him  say  that 
"  There  is  a  great  deal  more  antagonism  between  the  two 
races  here  at  the  North  than  at  the  South!  "  "What?" 
I  ask  with  surprise,  almost  doubting  if  I  heard  him  cor- 
rectly, when  he  repeats  the  remark  as  positively  as  before  : 
"  I  find  much  more  mutual  repulsion  between  the  whites 
and  blacks  here  in  Massachusetts  than  down  in  Old 
Virginia."  This  was  another  ''staggerer,"  which  set  me 
thinking,  and  has  kept  me  thinking  ever  since. 

Is  this  statement  true  ?  Can  it  be  that  there  is  a  color 
line  in  Massachusetts?  Alas!  I  am  afraid  there  is  even 
here,  in  dear  old  Stockbridge,  which  is  so  near  heaven  that 
I  have  heard  some  of  my  neighbors  say  they  were  not  impa- 
tient to  make  the  change.  It  does  not  show  itself  much, 
because  v/e  have  but  few  colored  people;  if  there  were 
more,  the  feeling  would  be  more  pronounced.  True,  they 
have  the  same  rights  of  person  and  property  as  white 
folks.  I  never  heard  of  their  being  subject  to  any  injus- 
tice because  of  their  color.  On  the  contrary,  if  anybody 
were  to  attempt  to  do  them  wrong,  it  would  be  the 
impulse  of  many,  as  it  would  be  mine,  to  befriend  them 
jusb  because  they  are  fewer  and  weaker.  Here  then  is 
absolute  equality  before  the  law  ;  but  that  does  not  imply 
social  equality,  of  which  (in  the  sense  of  social  intercourse) 
there  is  none. 

In  making  these  comparisons,  we  are  able  to  strike  a 
balance  between  the  North  and  the  South  as  a  field  for  the 
negro ;  and  now  I  ask  my  colored  brother  if,  looking  about 
him  at  the  whole  situation,  he  does  not  agree  that,  with  aU 
its  drawbacks  and  disadvantages,  he  has  just  as  good  a 
chance  to  make  a  man  of  himself  in  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina,  as  in  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut  ? 


EXCLUSION  FROM  HOTELS.  151 

True,  there  are  some  things  which  grate  harshly,  such 
as  the  exclusion  of  negroes,  even  though  they  may  be  men 
of  education,  from  places  of  entertainment — from  hotels 
and  theatres,  and  seats  in  drawing-room  cars — a  griev- 
ance so  great  that  it  has  been  thought  deserving  of  a 
special  enactment  for  its  punishment.  The  Civil  Rights 
bill,  of  which  Charles  Sumner  was  the  father,  and  which 
he  left  on  his  death-bed  as  a  sacred  charge  to  his  party  to 
carry  through  Congress,  made  it  a  law  that  the  blacks 
should  have  the  same  rights  in  hotels  and  on  railroads  as 
whites,  disregard  of  which  was  to  be  punished  by  fine  and 
imprisonment!  As  the  law  was  soon  declared  unconsti- 
tutional by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  it  fell 
to  the  ground ;  but  if  it  had  not,  it  would  have  been  diffi- 
cult or  impossible  to  enforce  it.  Nor  can  we  of  the  North 
blame  the  South  for  this  :  for  whether  the  exclusion  of  col- 
ored people  from  hotels  be  right  or  wrong,  just  or  unjust, 
we  cannnot  reproach  others  for  doing  what  we  do  our- 
selves. So  long  as  negroes  are  not  received  at  the  prin- 
cipal hotels  in  the  North,  it  would  be  a  piece  of  pharisaical 
hypocrisy  to  require  that  they  should  be  at  the  South. 
We  must  not  try  to  enforce  in  the  St.  Charles  Hotel  in 
New  Orleans,  what  cannot  be  enforced  in  the  Fifth-avenue 
Hotel  in  New  York ! 

Why,  even  here  in  New  England,  we  find  the  same 
race-prejudice.  Take  our  own  happy  valley.  If  a  colored 
man  were  to  come  from  the  city  to  spend  a  few  weeks  in 
the  country,  and  should  apply  for  rooms  at  the  Stockbridge 
House,  would  he  be  received  ?  There  might  be  no  objec- 
tion to  him  personally,  but  the  landlord,  though  he  is  one 
of  the  most  obliging  of  men,  would  say  that  the  admission 
of  a  colored  man  to  the  same  rooms  and  the  same  table, 
would  give  offence  to  his  white  guests  ;  and  that,  however 
he  might  wish  to  do  it,  he  could  not. 


152  EXCLUDED  FROM  DRAWING-ROOM  CARS. 

As  to  equality  on  railways,  there  is  more  ground  for 
complaint,  as  cases  are  frequently  reported  in  which 
colored  men,  who  are  as  decent  and  well-behaved  as  the 
common  run  of  white  passengers,  and  even  ministers  of 
the  Gospel,  are  turned  out  of  cars,  for  which  they  have 
paid  full  fare,  with  a  degree  of  roughness  and  violence 
which  has  excited  indignation,  not  only  at  the  North,  but 
among  the  best  men  at  the  South.  There  is  a  plain  rule 
of  justice,  which  ought  to  be  recognized  and  enforced,  viz: 
that  every  man  is  entitled  to  what  he  pays  for.  If  there 
be  on  the  part  of  the  whites  an  unwillingness  to  occupy  the 
same  cars  and  to  sit  in  the  same  seats  with  the  blacks,  let 
them  be  separate  ;  only  let  equally  good  cars  be  provided 
for  both,  if  both  pay  for  them.  In  Georgia  I  am  told  that 
this  is  now  required  by  law  ;  but  the  law,  it  would  seem, 
does  not  always  suffice  to  protect  the  blacks  from  the  vio- 
lence of  ruffians  who  invade  the  cars,  and  drive  them  out 
from  seats  for  which  they  have  paid,  and  to  which  they  are 
legally  entitled.  Here  is  a  case  for  those  who  have  framed 
a  righteous  law,  to  see  that  it  is  enforced.  A  black  man's 
money  is  just  as  good  as  a  white  man's,  and  if  he  pays  the 
same  fare,  he  is  entitled  to  the  same  accommodation. 

Whatever  inequality  there  may  be  of  rights  and  privi- 
leges at  the  South,  I  certainly  do  not  mean  to  apologize 
for  any  wrong  or  injustice  to  the  colored  man.  I  wish 
simply  to  show  that  the  color  line,  of  which  we  hear  so 
much,  is  not  peculiar  to  one  section  of  the  country ;  that 
it  exists  at  the  North  as  well  as  at  the  South  ;  and  that,  if 
we  would  be  just,  we  must  recognize  the  fact,  and  not 
ascribe  what  we  call  race-prejudice  to  the  peculiar  perver- 
sity of  our  Southern  brethren.  I  ask  that  we  judge  them 
by  the  same  rule  that  we  adopt  for  ourselves,  and  that  we 
do  not  condemn  them  for  the  very  things  of  which  we  are 
guilty. 


WE  CANNOT  FIGHT  AGAINST  INSTINCT.  153 

As  a  basis  of  comparison,  I  have  taken  the  highest 
standard.  New  England  is  my  mother,  and  my  model  of 
all  that  is  good.  I  am  proud  not  only  of  the  freedom, 
but  of  the  equality,  that  exists  among  these  hills,  where 
it  matters  not  if  a  man  be  rjch  or  poor,  white  or  black. 
I  am  willing  to  give  to  the  black  man  every  right  which  I 
ask  for  myself ;  but  I  cannot  compel  my  neighbor  to  invite 
him  to  his  house  ;  nor  indeed  do  I  feel  at  liberty  myself  to 
invite  him  to  a  company,  in  which  there  are  those  who 
would  be  offended  by  his  presence.  This  would  be  rude 
to  them,  and  would  make  all  uncomfortable.  A  gentleman 
must  be  governed  by  a  scrupulous  delicacy,  and  that 
would  dictate  that  he  should  not  give  pain  on  one  side  or 
on  the  other.  Social  intercourse  cannot  be  regulated  by 
law;  it  must  be  left  to  those  natural  attractions  and  affini- 
ties which  the  Almighty  has  planted  in  our  breasts.  That 
the  whites  should  desire  to  keep  to  themselves,  is  not  to  be 
ascribed  to  arrogance  ;  it  does  not  even  imply  an  assump- 
tion of  superiority.  It  is  not  that  one  race  is  above  the 
other,  but  that  the  two  races  are  different,  and  that,  while 
they  may  live  together  in  the  most  friendly  relations,  each 
will  consult  its  own  happiness  best  by  working  along  its 
own  lines.  This  is  a  matter  of  instinct,  which  is  often 
wiser  than  reason.  We  cannot  fight  against  instinct,  nor 
legislate  against  it ;  if  we  do,  we  shall  find  it  stronger  than 
our  resolutions  and  our  laws. 


CHAPTEK  XII. 
THE  EXPATRIATION  OF  A  WHOLE  RACE. 

The  shadow  of  the  African  still  darkens  the  South, 
casting  over  it  a  gloom,  by  which  some  are  so  burdened 
and  oppressed  with  the  foreboding  of  what  may  come 
hereafter,  that  they  mildly  propose,  as  the  only  remedy 
for  the  danger,  to  remove  the  race  altogether.  If  the 
negro  is  left  to  multiply  in  the  land,  he  may  become  too 
powerful,  and  so  let  us  get  rid  of  him  while  we  may  by  his 
wholesale  expatriation.  Thus  Senator  Hampton  of  South 
Carolina,  speaking  of  a  movement  of  the  negroes  from 
some  of  the  cotton  States,  says  :  "An  extensive  exodus 
would  be  an  inconvenience  to  the  South,  but  not  an  injury. 
We  would  gladly  see  the  colored  people  move  elsewhere, 
and  we  should  be  willing  to  suffer  any  reduction  of  repre- 
sentation that  might  result  from  their  departure.  It  would 
deprive  us  of  much  of  our  labor,  and  make  it  a  little  harder 
for  the  present  generation  ;  but  it  would  be  the  salvation 
of  the  future.  I  do  not  wish  any  harm  to  the  negroes,  but 
I  would  sacrifice  whatever  votes  we  get  in  the  Electoral 
College  or  in  Congress  by  reason  of  them,  if  they  would 
go  off  by  themselves.  I  would  gladly  vote  to  appropriate 
$50,000,000  for  the  purchase  of  Cuba,  or  some  other  place 
for  them  to  settle  in." 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  NEGRO  GO  ?  155 

This  is  certainly  very  generous — to  offer  a  whole  race, 
which  it  is  proposed  to  exile,  all  the  world  in  which  to 
choose  a  home,  except  the  country  in  which  they  were 
bom,  and  the  only  country  that  they  know  under  the  sun  ! 
But  by  what  right  do  we  make  this  startling  proposal? 
Has  the  Creator  given  it  to  us  thus  to  dispose  of  different 
portions  of  the  earth  ?  God  has  formed  the  world  for  the 
habitation  of  men — not  of  one  race  only,  but  of  aU  the 
tribes  and  kindreds  of  mankind.  Has  He  given  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  an  exclusive  right  to  lord  it  over  this  conti- 
nent, and  to  expel  all  races  but  his  own  ?  First,  to  drive 
out  the  Indian  from  his  forests  and  his  hunting-grounds; 
and  then,  after  having  imported  the  African  to  be  a  slave, 
and  kept  him  in  bondage  for  eight  generations,  to  turn 
him  adrift,  to  seek  a  home  in  the  West  Indies,  or  in  the 
pestilential  swamps  of  South  America  ?  The  descendants 
of  the  Africans  who  were  landed  at  Jamestown,  Virginia, 
in  1619,  are  as  pure  "  native  Americans  "  as  the  proud  de- 
scendants of  the  Huguenots,  who  settled  in  South  Carolina. 
On  what  ground  can  the  latter  invite  the  former  to  depart, 
and  leave  the  continent  to  them  alone  ? 

But  as  this  suggestion  of  "getting  rid "  of  the  black 
race  is  made  in  other  quarters,  and  in  all  seriousness,  it  is 
worth  considering  what  it  implies. 

You  who  would  expatriate  the  negro,  tell  us.  Where 
shall  he  go?  Two  generations  since,  it  was  the  belief  of 
many  good  people  that  the  Africans  had  been  brought  to 
America  to  be  Christianized,  and  were  now  to  be  returned 
to  their  native  land,  to  be  the  heralds  of  the  Gospel  over 
the  Dark  Continent.  The  idea  had  been  conceived  in  the 
last  century  by  Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins,  that  brave  old  cham- 
pion of  the  faith  and  of  human  liberty.  In  his  parish  at 
Newport  (which  might  have  been  called  Slave-port,  from 
the  number  of  cargoes  of  slaves  that  were  landed  there 


156  COLONIZATION  IN  AFRICA. 

from  Africa),  his  soul  was  kindled  with  indignation  ;  and 
he  longed  to  see  the  day  when  these  unhappy  children  of 
an  oppressed  race  should  be  sent  back  to  the  land  from 
which  they  had  been  torn.  But  he  did  not  live  to  see  his 
hope  fulfilled.  After  his  death,  the  project  was  revived  by 
some  of  the  best  men  in  the  country,  such  as  Bishop 
Meade  and  Charles  F.  Mercer  of  Virginia,  and  Rev.  Dr. 
Finley  of  New  Jersey;  and  in  1816  a  Society  was  organ- 
ized, with  the  great  name  of  Washington  (Bushrod  Wash- 
ington) as  its  President.  A  deputation  was  sent  to  Africa 
to  select  a  jite  for  a  colony,  and  chose  the  best  on  the 
western  coast,  with  five  or  six  hundred  miles  on  the 
Atlantic,  and  extending  three  hundred  miles  into  the 
interior.  Instead  of  being  all  swamps  and  jungle,  it  was  a 
high,  rolling  country,  with  hills  covered  with  forests,  and 
a  number  of  navigable  streams.  In  1820  eighty-six  colo- 
nists were  sent  out,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  it 
had  transported  ten  thousand  free  colored  people.  In 
1847  it  was  organized  as  an  independent  Republic,  to 
which  was  fitly  given  the  name  of  Liberia.  Then,  as  for 
many  years  before  and  after,  it  bore  the  illustrious  name 
of  Henry  Clay  as  its  President.  It  seemed  a  most  benign 
and  happy  project;  and  when,  now  and  then,  a  ship  sailed 
away,  bearing  a  reinforcement  to  the  colony,  devout  men 
and  women  gathered  on  her  deck,  and  sang  hymns,  and 
offered  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  in  blissful  hope  that  the 
day  of  Africa's  redemption  was  drawing  nigh.  But  since 
the  foundation  of  the  colony,  seventy  years  have  passed, 
and  the  day  does  not  seem  to  be  much  nearer  than  before. 
Since  the  war  the  Colonization  Society  has  faded  from 
the  public  notice  so  entirely  that  many  will  be  surprised 
to  learn  that  it  is  stiU  in  existence.  But  the  visitor  at 
Washington,  as  ho  rides  down  Pennsylvania  avenue,  wiU 
see  its  sign  stiU  on  the  corner,  where  it  has  hung  so  long; 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  LIBERIA.  151 

and  once  or  twice  a  year  (perhaps  oftener)  it  sends  a  small 
contingent  to  the  shores  of  Africa.  Nor  is  the  work  that 
it  has  done  to  be  despised:  for  it  is  no  small  thing  to  plant 
a  colony  which,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  still  lives,  and  has 
grown  strong;  which  has  a  good  government,  with  schools 
and  churches,  with  eighteen  or  twenty  thousand  people 
born  in  America,  or  their  descendants,  forming  the  nucleus 
of  a  civilized  and  Christian  State;  and  that  has  a  million  of 
natives  under  its  beneficent  rule.  This  is  a  great  deal  to 
be  accomplished  within  three-score  years  and  ten — the 
life-time  of  a  man — and  is  worth  all  that  it  cost. 

As  such,  Liberia  will  remain  a  beacon-light  on  the 
African  coast,  to  attract  all  who  may  wish  to  go.  But 
their  going  should  be  a  matter  of  perfect  liberty.  Whoso 
is  "  called,"  either  by  Providence  or  his  own  inward  yearn- 
ing for  the  land  of  his  fathers,  let  him  go.  But  let  no 
man  be  compelled  to  choose  what  seems  to  him  exile  from 
the  land  of  his  birth.  If  of  his  own  unfettered  wiU  he 
elects  to  go,  let  him  depart  with  the  blessing  of  all  Chris- 
tian people  upon  him,  assured  that  on  the  other  side  of  the 
ocean  he  wiU  find  a  home  and  a  welcome,  and  may  become 
a  missionary  of  civilization  and  Christianity  to  a  continent. 
To  those  who  thus  go  as  volunteers,  the  change  may  be  a 
good  one,  and  their  coming  may  be  a  valuable  accession 
to  the  colony  ;  but  as  reducing  the  colored  population  in 
this  country,  the  effect  would  be  infinitesimal. 

To  anticipate  anything  beyond  this  limited  and  volun- 
tary emigration,  seems  to  me  quite  visionary.  I  know 
that  a  high  authority,  a  man  of  great  intelligence  and 
learning.  Dr.  Edward  W.  Blyden  (a  fuU-blooded  African, 
though  boi-n  in  the  West  Indies),  who  has  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  in  Liberia,  argues  that  colonization 
on  the  widest  scale  is  the  true,  and  indeed  the  only,  exit 
for  the  negro  race.     He  says  in  so  many  words  that  the 


158  A  WHOLE  RACE  CANNOT  CROSS  THE  SEA. 

only  hope  of  the  African  is  in  Africa ;  that  so  long  as  he 
remains  in  America,  he  must  he  an  inferior;  but  that  once 
transferred  across  the  sea,  "the  whole  boundless  conti- 
nent" is  his,  in  which  to  build  cities  and  found  empires. 
He  does  not  teU  us  how  it  has  happened  that  the  African 
race  has  held  the  continent,  to  the  exclusion  of  aU  other 
races,  for  hundreds  and  thousand  of  years,  having  had  at 
one  time  the  benefit  of  the  highest  civilization,  when 
Northern  Africa  was  a  part  of  the  Boman  Empire;  but 
that,  instead  of  building  cities  and  founding  empires,  it 
has  sunk  to  the  lowest  degree  of  barbarism. 

The  project  of  a  general  emigration  to  Africa  as  a  final 
settlement  of  the  Eace  Question,  may  therefore  be  dis- 
missed as  a  beautiful  dream — beautiful  indeed,  but  none 
the  less  a  dream.  The  undertaking  is  beyond  the  power 
of  all  the  Southern  States  combined,  even  supported  by 
the  resources  of  the  National  Government.  The  thing  is 
physically  impossible.  There  are  not  ships  enough  in  all 
the  navies  and  all  the  commerce  of  the  world,  to  transport 
seven  millions  of  human  beings — men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren— across  the  Atlantic.  What  heavy-laden  fleets  would 
need  to  accompany  this  Grand  Armada,  to  feed  the  poor 
creatures  on  their  miserable  voyage!  And  then,  when 
landed,  what  would  you  do  with  them?  You  could  not 
leave  them  to  perish.  You  must  prepare  the  way  for 
them  by  subduing  the  forests,  and  clearing  the  jungle 
along  the  coast  for  hundreds  of  miles ;  you  must  plant 
millions  of  acres,  and  build  towns  and  cities  for  human 
habitation ;  while  the  African  fever — a  destroyer  more  ter- 
rible than  all  the  lions  on  the  continent — would  lay  the 
miserable  exiles  by  tens  of  thousands  in  their  graves.  I 
do  believe  that  one  half  of  all  the  emigrants  would  die  the 
first  year,  and  the  other  half  the  next.  This  would  be  a 
settlement  of  the  negro  question  by  universal  destruction. 


COLONIZATION  AT  HOME.  159 

But  the  idea  of  colonization  is  not  one  conceived  only 
in  the  brains  of  the  old  masters,  eager  to  expel  the  poor 
people  whom  they  can  no  longer  control — a  decree  of 
banishment  to  be  passed  by  the  State  Legislatures  or  the 
National  Government,  and  carried  out  by  the  arm  of  the 
law,  no  matter  what  degree  of  suffering  it  may  inflict ;  it 
is  a  favorite  idea  with  many  of  the  colored  people  them- 
selves, who,  feeling  that  they  have  no  home  here,  that  they 
must  always  be  an  inferior  race,  cast  their  eyes  round  the 
horizon,  to  see  if  they  can  find  some  place  of  refuge. 
Some  colonies  have  already  been  sent  to  Kansas,  where 
they  are  reported  as  doing  fairly  weU  ;  others  seek  homes 
farther  south,  in  the  less  occupied  parts  of  Texas,  or  it 
may  be  even  across  the  border  in  Mexico. 

To  such  movements  it  seems  to  me  the  whites  should 
interpose  no  obstacle,  but  rather  aid  those  to  whom  they 
have  stood  in  such  close  relations,  and  bid  them  farewell 
in  the  sincere  hope  that  they  may  find  happiness  in  the 
new  homes  to  which  they  are  bound.  But  here,  as  in  the 
emigration  to  Africa,  the  few  that  go  make  no  perceptible 
reduction  of  the  mass  that  remain.  The  emigrants  go  in 
small  companies,  by  dozens  or  by  scores,  that  are  not 
missed  by  those  that  are  left  behind.  "What  impression 
can  these  little  detachments  make  upon  a  population  that 
is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  over  a  hundred  thousand  a 
year? 

But  Senator  Hampton  suggests  a  nearer  home  for  the 
exiled  race.  Let  us  buy  Cuba,  which  is  but  a  few  hours' 
sail  from  our  coast,  and  transport  them  there,  where  they 
could  have  the  island  all  to  themselves,  and  govern  their 
own  country  in  their  own  way.  This  looks  more  feasible, 
but  the  result,  I  believe,  would  show  that  the  black  race 
cannot  stand  alone — separate  from  the  help  and  guidance 
of  the  more  intelligent  white  race.    In  the  West  Indies 


160  A  PURE  AFRICAN  STATE. 

there  has  been  already  an  experiment  of  a  government  by 
blacks,  the  history  of  which  is  written  in  blood.  Do  we 
desire  to  turn  the  fair  island  of  Cuba  into  another  St. 
Domingo  ? 

But  some  think  these  dangers  might  be  guarded  against, 
and  the  experiment  made  a  success,  if  the  emigrant  popu- 
lation were  to  retain  a  political  connection  with  us,  not 
as  a  colony  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States, 
but  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Union.  One  of  the  most 
distinguished  men  of  Georgia,  who  has  given  a  great  deal 
of  attention  to  this  subject,  recently  explained  to  me  in 
some  detail  the  plan  which  he  would  like  to  see  brought 
forward  in  Congress,  and  adopted  by  the  Government. 
It  was  briefly  this  :  that  we  should  purchase  from  Mexico 
one  or  two  of  its  outlying  provinces,  covering  a  tenitory 
as  large  as  Texas,  to  which  should  be  removed  the  negro 
population  of  the  Southern  States,  where  they  should  be 
a  people  by  themselves,  their  own  masters  in  every  re- 
spect, forming  a  pure  African  State,  with  no  intermixture 
of  alien  blood.  This  would  relieve  the  feeling  of  humilia- 
tion from  which  their  young  men  of  high  spirit  now  suffer : 
for  they  would  have  open  to  them  all  the  honors  and  dig- 
nities of  the  State  ;  they  could  be  governors  and  judges 
and  legislators.  The  State  would  be  as  "sovereign  and 
independent "  as  Georgia  and  Virginia.  As  such,  it  would 
send  its  representatives  to  Congress,  where  they  would  be 
no  longer  looked  upon  with  a  race-jealousy.  On  the  con- 
trary, a  black  senator  would  be  a  picturesque  object,  as 
much  as  if  he  were  a  Moor  from  Africa,  and  would  be 
looked  upon  with  the  same  admiring  curiosity  that  we 
now  bestow  upon  a  Chinese  or  Japanese  ambassador. 

So  reasoned  this  delightful  Southerner.  The  picture 
which  he  drew  was  so  dazzling  that  I  did  not  wonder  that 
it  bUnded  him  to  all  the  difficulties  in  the  way,  which 


A  COLONY  IN    CENTRAL  AMERICA.  161 

melted  before  his  ardent  imagination  like  mists  before  the 
rising  sun.  If  Mexico  would  not  sell  us  a  portion  of  her 
territory,  there  was  land  enough  to  be  had  for  the  asking, 
or  for  purchase,  and  the  price  was  nothing  to  a  country- 
rich  as  ours.  In  what  is  known  as  Central  America  there 
are  two  States,  Honduras  and  Nicaragua,  either  of  which 
is  larger  than  the  island  of  Cuba,  the  former  having  50,000 
square  miles,  and  the  latter  58,000 — both  magnificently  sit- 
uated between  the  two  oceans,  with  vast  coast-lines  open- 
ing on  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  ;  while  Guatemala  has 
44,000  square  miles,  and  yet  (although  its  population  is 
reckoned  at  nearly  two  millions),  it  has  but  20,000  whites. 
The  country,  in  fact,  is  said  virtually  to  belong  to  a  few 
Spanish  families,  that  perhaps  might  be  induced  to  part 
with  their  possessions  for  a  reasonable  consideration. 
Even  little  Costa  Kica,  with  but  21,500  square  miles,  is 
a  good  deal  larger  than  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
Rhode  Island  put  together.  Here  then  are  four  States, 
all  in  that  tropical  climate  which  is  suited  to  the  negro. 
May  not  one  of  them  be  finally  the  Promised  Land  for  the 
Lost  Tribes  of  our  African  Israel  ? 

This  is  indeed  a  brilliant  scheme,  but  which,  I  think, 
would  encounter  both  a  material  and  moral  objection  that 
would  be  fatal.  If  it  is  to  be  carried  out  by  the  General 
Government,  it  must  have  the  support  of  the  North,  whose 
people  form  a  very  large  majority  of  the  whole  population 
of  the  country.  Now  the  Northerners  are  a  careful  and  a 
prudent  race,  and  before  entering  into  such  an  enterprise, 
would  scrutinize  it  very  carefully,  and  would  soon  conclude 
that  it  would  not  only  cost  more  than  a  dozen  Panama 
Canals,  but  that  it  would  be  very  doubtful  in  its  results. 
But,  behind  and  above  all,  is  the  moral  sentiment  of  the 
North,  that  would  never  consent  that  the  colored  popula- 
tion should  be  removed  in  any  other  way  than  by  their 


162  EXPATRIATION  A  BLOW  TO  THE  SOUTH. 

own  free  choice.  Here,  as  in  the  case  of  whoever  wishes 
to  seek  a  home  in  Liberia,  the  country  would  say:  If  you 
desire  to  go  out  from  among  us,  go,  and  the  blessing  of 
Him  who  is  the  God  of  aU  the  races  of  men,  go  with  you ! 
But  you  shall  go  as  a  freeman,  as  an  emigrant,  and  not  as 
an  exile ! 

Suppose  then,  before  this  gen-eral  deportation  is  begun, 
it  should  be  left  to  the  negroes  themselves  to  vote  upon  it, 
what  do  our  Southern  friends  think  their  choice  would  be  ? 
They  are  not  a  venturesome  and  enterprising  race,  ready, 
like  the  sea-rovers  of  the  North,  to  start  off  on  great  expe- 
ditions, and  sail  away  to  plant  colonies  on  distant  shores ; 
and  however  they  might  listen  with  wonder  to  the  fasci- 
nating story  of  the  palm-groves  and  the  free-and-easy  life 
to  which  they  were  to  be  transported,  when  it  came  to  the 
point  of  breaking  away,  they  would  draw  back  and  linger 
about  the  old  plantations,  rather  than  seek  new  homes  in 
some  unknown  "  land  of  the  sun." 

If  the  sanguine  projectors  of  these  grand  schemes  of 
expatriating  a  whole  race,  are  surprised  and  disappointed 
that  the  negroes  do  not  eagerly  accept  the  offer,  they  may 
yet  find  their  disappointment  a  blessing  :  for  this  removal 
of  the  blacks  would  be  the  greatest  possible  calamity  to 
the  South,  as  it  would  take  away  at  a  blow  what  is  the 
first  necessity  in  every  civilized  country :  a  vast  laboring 
population — a  race  especially  fitted  to  the  climate  and  ac- 
customed to  the  labor.  Take  the  African  from  the  rice 
and  the  cotton  fields,  and  the  sugar  plantations,  and  in 
spite  of  the  golden  visions  of  Mr.  "Wade  Hampton,  a  large 
part  of  Georgia  and  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  would  re- 
lapse into  a  howling  wilderness.  Thus  expatriation  would 
be,  not  a  blessing,  but  an  unspeakable  curse — a  curse  to 
both  races,  as  the  banishment  of  one  would  be  the  ruin  of 
the  other.    Nor  is  there  any  need  to  resort  to  a  measure 


THE  NEGRO  IS  HERE  TO  STAY.  163 

SO  extreme  and  so  cruel.  The  two  races  are  necessary  to 
each  other,  and  any  policy  which  would  divide  them  and 
separate  them,  would  entail  untold  misery  on  succeeding 
generations;  and  therefore  I  protest  against  aU  schemes 
of  banishing  the  negroes  from  the  soil  on  which  they  were 
bom.  A  race  that  has  been  here  for  two  hundred  and 
seventy  years,  and  that  has  multiplied  till  it  has  become 
Hke  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multitude,  is  not  to  be  driven 
off  the  continent  into  the  sea,  or  beyond  it,  at  the  bidding 
of  any  power.  When  I  hear  the  politician  casting  words 
of  contempt  and  of  ignominy  upon  the  negro,  and  pre- 
dicting that  he  will  "  die  out,"  and  perish  from  off  the 
New  "World  in  which  he  has  lived  so  long,  I  see  a  dusky 
figure  rising  up  in  the  gloom  of  the  Southern  forests,  and 
hear  the  voice  of  one  who  believes  in  his  race,  and  in 
Almighty  God  as  its  Protector,  making  answer,  "  I  shall 
not  die,  but  live,  and  declare  the  works  of  the  Lord  !  " 

Is  it  not  time  to  di'op  these  visionary  projects,  and  to 
recognize  the  hard  fact,  however  unpleasant  it  may  be, 
that  the  negro  is  here,  and  here  to  stay?  He  has  as  good 
a  right  to  be  here  as  we  have.  He  was  born  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic.  He  knows  no  more  of  Africa  than  we  do, 
nor  half  as  much.  The  only  country  he  knows  under  the 
broad  canopy  of  heaven,  is  America.  Has  he  not  a  right 
to  say,  "  Here  my  fathers  have  lived  for  many  generations ; 
here  was  I  born ;  here  were  my  children  born  ;  and  here, 
by  God's  help,  will  we  live,  and  here  wiU  we  die  "  ? 

Recognizing  this  fact  as  one  that  cannot  be  changed  by 
any  amount  of  agitation  or  of  legislation,  the  only  ques- 
tion is.  Whether  the  two  races,  white  and  black,  can  live 
side  by  side  without  constant  collision  ?  Some  will  tell  us 
that  it  is  simply  impossible  ;  that  the  juxtaposition  of  two 
races,  alien  to  each  other  in  nature  as  in  blood,  yet  living 
on  the  same  soil  and  having  the  same  poUtical  rights, 


164         CANNOT  THE  TWO  RACES  LIVE  TOGETHER  ? 

means  perpetual  war — a  war  like  that  between  the  Span- 
iard and  the  Moor,  which  lasted  for  eight  hundred  years,  to 
end,  like  that,  only  in  the  extermination  of  the  one  or  the 
other.  Is  this  the  inevitable  doom  of  the  black  race  ?  Or 
is  it  possible  that  the  two  races  should  live  through  all  the 
coming  generations,  not  only  the  closest  of  neighbors,  but 
the  best  of  friends?  This  is  the  Race  Problem  which  con- 
fronts us  to-day — the  most  difficult  and  perplexing  prob- 
lem that  ever  stood  across  the  ascending  path  of  a  great 
nation.  We  are  making  a  tremendous  experiment,  and 
one,  some  tell  us,  foredoomed  to  failure.  If  so,  then  civil- 
ization is  a  failure ;  and,  what  is  worse,  Christianity  is  a 
failure.  But  we  shall  not  fail.  Our  faith  is  in  God  and 
in  the  American  people.  He  who  guided  our  fathers  in 
all  the  crises  of  their  history,  will  not  forget  us  in  this 
supreme  moment  of  anxiety  and  of  fear.  He  wiU  still 
lead  us  on  through  this  last  great  danger,  to  the  end 
that  our  government  may  be  "  settled  upon  the  best  and 
surest  foundations ;  that  peace  and  happiness,  truth  and 
justice,  religion  and  piety,  may  be  established  among  us 
for  all  generations." 


CHAPTER  XnL 

LOOKING  FORWARD. 

From  the  dark  background  of  a  gloomy  past,  it  is  a 
relief  to  turn  our  eyes  towards  a  brighter  future.  It  is  a 
quarter  of  a  century  since  the  negro  received  his  freedom. 
Since  then  he  has  been,  as  it  were,  on  trial,  to  prove 
whether  he  was  worthy  of  the  liberty  that  was  given  him, 
or  whether  it  were  better  that  he  had  been  kept  in  slavery. 
And  with  aU  his  imperfections,  I  think  he  has  stood  the 
test  pretty  weU.  He  has  proved  himself,  not  only  a  good 
hand  at  his  old  business  of  the  shovel  and  the  hoe,  but  has 
showTi  a  good  deal  of  "grit"  and  "staying  power."  He 
has  not  died  out,  as  some  of  his  kind  friends  were  sure 
that  he  would  do  as  soon  as  he  was  left  to  himself ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  his  descendants  have  multiplied  Hke  the 
children  of  Israel  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  Nor  has  he  shown 
himself  the  indolent  creature  that  we  were  told  he  would 
be  as  soon  as  the  pressure  of  servitude  was  taken  off. 
True,  there  are  numbers  of  idle,  shiftless,  worthless  negroes, 
lying  about  the  streets  of  every  city  and  large  town  in  the 
South,  just  as  there  are  numbers  of  idle,  shiftless,  and 
worthless  white  men  in  our  Northern  cities,  that  could  be 
spared  without  a  loss  to  civilization.    Those  who  prophesied 


166-  THE  NEGRO  INDUSTRIOUS. 

his  helpless  and  hopeless  indolence  as  soon  as  he  was  set 
free,  forgot  that  he  would  come  under  another  pressure 
the  moment  that  he  had  to  take  care  of  himseK.  In  the 
old  days,  when  "  Master  "  provided  everything,  he  could 
lie  about,  and  feign  sickness,  and  shirk  his  day's  task  ;  but 
when  it  came  to  this,  that  "  if  he  did  not  work,  neither 
should  he  eat,"  he  began  to  stir  himself,  and  has  worked 
to  some  purpose,  in  proof  of  which  it  is  necessary  to  give 
but  one  single  fact  :  that  in  Georgia  the  negroes  are  taxed 
on  property  to  the  amount  of  ten  millions  of  dollars!  As 
the  property  subject  to  taxation  is  generally  estimated  at 
little  more  than  half  its  real  value,  this  would  indicate  that 
the  negroes  of  one  Southern  State  are  to-day  worth  twenty 
millions  of  dollars !  This  does  not  look  like  idleness  and 
waste  in  the  years  that  they  have  been  free. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  aU  these  well-to-do  blacks 
are  mere  laborers  on  the  old  plantations.  Many  of  them 
are  mechanics,  wherein  they  have  an  advantage  over  their 
brethren  at  the  North.  In  New  York  city  there  are  few 
colored  mechanics,  and  these  work  in  a  very  small  way. 
General  Armstrong  recently  said  to  me  :  "  Northern  com- 
petition is  harder  on  the  negro  than  Southern  prejudice." 
Colored  men  here  complain  bitterly  of  the  way  in  which 
they  are  driven  out  of  all  the  better  class  of  trades.  They 
say  that  not  one  of  them  can  find  employment  in  any  store 
or  shop ;  nor  be  an  apprentice  to  learn  a  trade ;  indeed 
that  they  cannot  do  anything  except  the  most  menial  labor. 
The  cases  recently  given  us  by  Mr.  Grimke  would  show 
that  it  is  somewhat  better  in  New  England  ;  yet  even 
The  Congregationalist  of  Boston  says : 

*«The  difiQcuIties  in  the  way  of  just  treatment  of  the  negro 
are  not  confined  to  the  South.  In  some  respects  he  is  not  so 
well  off  in  the  Northern  States.  It  is  affirmed  that  even  in 
Boston  fiardly  a  single  colored  boy  can  be  found  learning  a  trade, 


COLORED  SCHOOLS  IN  THE  SOUTH.  16t 

because,  except  hotel-waiting,  boot-blacking,  and  barbering,  the 
trades  are  all  closed  against  him.  No  negroes,  with  a  single 
exception,  were  observed  in  the  ranks  of  the  processions  repre- 
senting the  different  trades  on  Labor  Day.  In  the  South  they 
are  shut  out  of  hotels,  and  compelled  to  ride  in  inferior  railway- 
cars  ;  but  they  can  learn  trades  without  hindrance.  Such  a  state 
of  things  is  not  a  credit  to  Northern  civilization." 

In  Georgia  the  negroes  find  no  such  barriers  in  their 
way.  They  can  enter  any  trade,  and,  if  they  become 
skilled  mechanics,  can  find  plenty  to  do.  Their  old  mas- 
ters, instead  of  a  feeling  of  resentment  at  their  being  free, 
seem  to  like  to  have  them  about,  and  encourage  them 
in  every  way.  This  is  greatly  to  their  honor.  When  we 
think  how  many  of  these  old  masters  were  themselves 
impoverished,  and  some  of  them  literally  beggared,  by  the 
war,  it  shows  a  generous  disposition  that  they  take  so 
kindly  to  the  new  situation;  and  it  may  be  in  part  as- 
cribed to  their  friendly  counsel,  as  well  as  to  the  industry 
of  the  blacks,  that  so  many  of  the  latter  have  got  along  so 
well,  and  been  able  to  make  themselves  comfortable  and 
independent. 

But  the  brightest  light  on  the  Southern  horizon,  is  the 
education  of  the  colored  race.  Before  the  war  this  was 
unknown.  A  few  house-servants  might  be  taught  to  read 
and  write,  to  make  them  more  useful  in  the  business  of 
their  masters  ;  but  anything  like  a  general  education  of 
the  blacks,  would  have  been  viewed  with  alarm.  Indeed  a 
school  for  teaching  them,  however  smaU,  even  if  it  were 
on  a  plantation,  and  conducted  by  members  of  the  plant- 
er's own  family,  was  an  object  of  suspicion.  A  servile 
race  must  not  be  allowed  to  become  intelligent.  Ideas 
are  explosive.  For  this  reason  schools  for  the  blacks  were 
forbidden  by  law.  But  when  the  war  was  over,  this  was 
one  of  the  first  things  that  engaged  the  attention  of  phil- 
anthropic people  at  the  Noi-th  ;   and  teachers  were   sent 


168  A  MAGNIFICENT  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

South,  who,  at  the  cost  of  social  ostracism  in  the  commu- 
nities into  which  they  went,  began  the  work  of  negro 
education. 

But  these  schools,  few  and  scattered  as  they  were, 
could  make  but  little  impression  on  the  mass  of  the 
colored  population.  AU  together,  they  could  reach  but  a 
fraction  of  the  children.  It  was  reserved  for  the  South 
itself  to  do  the  work  on  a  much  grander  scale.  Governor 
Gordon  of  Georgia,  in  a  recent  address,  says:  "When  her 
people  secured  possession  of  the  State  government,  they 
found  about  six  thousand  colored  pupils  in  the  public 
schools,  and  her  school  exchequer  bankrupt.  To-day, 
instead  of  six  thousand,  we  have  over  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  colored  pupils  in  the  pubKc  schools,  with 
the  exchequer  expanding  and  the  schools  multiplying  year 
by  year!  "  If  it  be  said  that  the  negroes  themselves  are 
taxed  for  these  schools,  I  answer  :  "  Yes,  they  pay  one- 
thirtieth  of  the  expense ;  the  other  twenty-nine-thirtieths 
are  paid  by  the  whites ! " 

Nor  is  Georgia  alone  in  this  work.  The  same  spirit 
is  reported  in  South  CaroUna  and  Tennessee,  and  other 
of  the  more  thickly-settled  States ;  so  that  in  all  the 
South  there  are  no  less  than  sixteen  thousand  colored 
schools!  Of  course  the  burden  of  supporting  all  these 
is  enormous,  especially  upon  States  that  are  not  rich.  It 
is  to  the  honor  of  the  North  that  she  has  claimed  a  share 
in  this  truly  national  work.  There  is  the  Peabody  Fund, 
and  the  Slater  Fund,  and  the  Hand  Fund,  besides  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  dollars  that  are  given  every  year. 
But  after  all  is  said  and  done,  the  greater  part  of  the 
burden  has  to  be  borne  by  the  South,  and  to  her  belongs 
the  honor,  which  no  Northerner  should  be  so  base  as  to 
try  to  take  from  her.  Let  her  have  the  fuU  glory  of  this 
magnificent  work,  done  in  such  a  magnificent  way. 


EVERY  RIGHT  BUT  THE  YOTE  1  169 

After  such  an  exhibition  of  kindness  and  generosity,  it 
would  seem  as  if  the  South  was  ready  to  do  everything  for 
the  negro — to  give  him  every  right,  every  opportunity,  and 
every  privilege  possessed  by  the  whites.  Yes !  yes !  every 
right  but  one — that  of  the  ballpt !  Even  to  this  they  have 
no  objection  when  he  is  in  a  hopeless  minority,  so  that  his 
vote  "can  do  no  harm."  But  the  moment  he  is  in  the 
majority,  he  becomes  dangerous.  Now  there  are  four 
Southern  States — South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
and  Louisiana — in  which  he  outnumbers  the  whites,  so 
that  a  combination  of  the  black  voters  would  give  them 
the  election  of  the  Governor  and  Legislature,  and  thus 
the  control  of  the  State.  Here  in  these  States  any  attempt 
on  their  part  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage  on  a  large 
scale,  and  thus  to  gain  political  power,  is  to  be  resisted  to 
the  last  extremity. 

My  readers  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  I  have  never 
been  in  favor  of  universal  suffrage  among  whites  or 
blacks — among  the  ignorant  creatures  who  arrive  here  by 
every  ship  from  Europe,  or  the  equally  ignorant  negroes 
of  the  South  ;  and  I  still  adhere  to  that  opinion,  even 
though  the  country  has,  in  both  cases,  decided  otherwise. 
A  man  who  is  defeated  always  thinks  he  is  right :  he  may 
at  least  be  allowed  that  small  privilege,  when  those  who 
differ  from  him  have  won  their  case.  It  is  too  late  to 
argue  the  matter  now.  Good  or  bad,  wise  or  unwise,  the 
thing  is  done,  and  cannot  be  undone.  If  a  ship  is  over- 
taken by  a  storm  in  the  middle  of  the  ocean,  and  in  dan- 
ger of  going  to  the  bottom,  none  but  cowards  would  sit 
down  in  the  cabin,  and  lament  the  folly  of  setting  out  on 
the  voyage.     The  duty  is  to  save  the  ship  ! 

So  in  the  present  case.  Everybody  now  sees  that  the 
giving  of  the  vote  to  raw  immigrants,  who  could  not  even 
speak  our  language,  was  a  stupendous  folly  ;  but  what  are 


ItO        MUST  BK  TAKEN  FOR  BETTER,  FOR  WORSE. 

we  going  to  do  about  it  ?  Mr.  McCulloch  thinks  Congress 
should  pass  a  law  requiring  them  to  reside  here  a  number 
of  years  before  being  naturalized  and  allowed  to  vote. 
That  would  be  indeed  a  wise  precaution,  but  it  is  easier 
said  than  done.  It  will  not  be  easy  to  pass  such  a  law,  for 
the  opposition  will  come  from  the  places  where  such 
restriction  is  most  needed,  viz:  in  the  great  cities,  where 
demagogues  find  this  ignorant  mass  of  foreign  voters  the 
very  material  which  they  wish  to  use. 

Nor  is  there  any  more  hope  that  the  vote  will  be  taken 
from  the  blacks  at  the  South,  than  from  the  newly  import- 
ed Irish  at  the  North.  I  know  that  some  cling  to  such  an 
idea,  and  measures  have  been  proposed  to  this  end. 
There  is  indeed  one  way  in  which  it  could  be  done, 
that  would  be  fair  and  just  to  all  parties,  by  which  our 
Southern  friends  could  be  immediately  disembarrassed  of 
the  negro  vote,  viz:  by  passing  a  law  to  restrict  the  ballot 
to  those  who  can  read  and  write,  and  who  have  some 
small  amount  of  property.  This  would  not  be  universal 
suffrage,  but  it  would  be  impartial  suffrage,  which  would 
be  far  better.  But  this  change  is  opposed  by  the  poHti- 
cians,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  exclude  thousands  of 
the  whites  who  are  as  ignorant  as  the  blacks  !  So  there  is 
no  hope  of  relief  from  that  source.  Universal  suffrage  is 
the  law,  and  such  it  will  remain,  and  we  have  got  to  take  it, 
for  better,  for  worse.  "We  are  in  for  it,  and  must  make  the 
best  of  it. 

This  is  the  situation  which  the  South  has  to  contem- 
plate. Her  leading  men  are  old  soldiers,  trained  to  mili- 
tary discipline,  and  they  know  that  the  only  way  to  meet 
danger,  is  to  look  it  squarely  in  the  face.  They  cannot  run 
away  from  it  if  they  would,  nor  is  that  the  temper  of  men 
whose  courage  has  been  proved  on  many  a  battle-field. 
In  the  same  cool  and  determined  spirit  the  South  should 


WHAT  WILL  THE  SOUTH  DO  ABOUT  IT  ?  Ill 

understand  the  dimensions  of  the  power  that  it  has  to  deal 
with,  before  it  enters  on  a  struggle  in  which  it  may  have 
to  measure  strength,  not  only  with  a  subject  race,  but  with 
a  whole  nation  behind  it.  It  would  therefore  simplify  the 
situation,  if  it  would  recognize  the  fact,  which  it  can  no 
longer  ignore,  that  the  policy  of  the  country  in  regard  to 
the  civil  rights  of  the  negro  is  settled,  and  will  not  be 
changed. 

The  only  question  that  remains  is.  What  is  the  South 
going  to  do  about  it?  Will  it  accept  the  situation,  and 
make  the  best  of  it  ?  Or  will  it  try  to  nuUify  the  law  by 
fraud,  by  miscounting  of  the  vote,  or  by  violence  and 
intimidation  ?  I  do  not  like  to  ask  this  question,  as  it  is  a 
sore  point  at  the  South,  whose  people  sometimes  think  it 
a  great  impertinence  in  us  at  the  North  to  trouble  our- 
selves so  much  about  Southern  elections.  We  beg  to 
assure  them  that  we  have  no  disposition  to  meddle  in  what 
is  none  of  our  business.  We  believe  in  home  rule  for 
Georgia  as  weU  as  for  New  York,  and  that  in  the  manage- 
ment of  her  political  affairs  the  South  must  work  out  her 
own  salvation.  At  the  same  time  we  cannot  forget  that 
the  North  and  the  South  are  parts  of  one  country  ;  mem- 
bers of  the  same  body ;  and  that  if  one  member  suffer,  all 
the  members  suffer  with  it ;  and  that  poHtical  demoraliza- 
tion cannot  prevail  in  half  a  dozen  States  without  poison- 
ing the  whole  national  life. 

I  admit  that  the  South  has  reason  to  distrust  the  col- 
ored vote.  It  has  had  one  experience  of  negro  rule,  and 
once  was  enough.  A  friend  recently  told  me  of  an  inci- 
dent within  his  own  personal  knowledge.  It  was  some 
years  since,  in  a  town  in  Mississippi,  where  the  blacks 
being  largely  in  the  majority,  swept  the  board,  electing 
none  but  negroes,  save  one  who  was  a  carpet-bagger — a 
combination  that  went  to  work  at  once  to  loot  the  town, 


172  A  NICE  SCHEME  OF  PLUNDER. 

beginning  operations  by  imposing  a  tax  of  twenty-five  per 
cent,  "for  municipal  purposes  "  I  As  the  whites  had  been 
so  impoverished  by  the  war  that  they  could  not  pay,  the 
next  step  was  to  put  up  their  lands  and  houses  to  be  sold 
for  taxes,  which  the  carpet-bagger,  being  the  only  man 
who  had  any  money,  stood  ready  to  buy  !  Here  was  as 
nice  a  scheme  of  plunder  as  ever  was  planned,  which  the 
old  masters  met  in  the  only  way  possible :  seeing  that 
they  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  gang  of  thieves,  they 
went  to  the  chief  brigand,  and  putting  together  all  they 
could  rake  and  scrape,  bought  him  off  by  paying  him 
blackmail,  giving  up  a  part  of  the  little  they  had  to  save 
the  rest ! 

Such  performances  shock  all  our  ideas,  not  only  of  de- 
cent government,  but  of  civilized  society ;  and  we  do  not 
wonder  that  men  of  spirit  and  independence  will  not  sub- 
mit to  what  is  no  better  than  highway  robbery.  But  this 
was  an  extreme  case,  from  which  it  will  not  do  to  draw  a 
general  rule — one  that  will  justify  the  same  "  buying  off" 
whenever  it  is  needed  to  carry  an  election.  One  of  the  evil 
consequences  of  universal  negro  suffrage,  is  that  it  has  be- 
gotten such  a  general  demoralization  in  political  matters, 
that  buying  votes  is  not  only  winked  at,  but  done  openly, 
without  the  least  scruple  ;  with  no  conscience  about  it,  as 
if  it  involved  anything  vn^ong.  I  cannot  get  over  the  im- 
pression made  at  hearing  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and 
honorable  gentleman  I  met  in  the  South,  say,  "  The  negro 
vote  is  easily  controlled  hy  the  use  of  money"  It  was  a  sur- 
prise, and  a  painful  one  :  for  while  money  breaks  no  bones, 
it  works  fearful  mischief  upon  one's  manliness.  Indeed 
few  things  are  more  demoralizing  than  bribery.  It  is  not, 
like  mercy,  "twice  blessed,"  but  twice  cursed,  in  "him 
that  gives  and  him  that  takes." 

But  this  is  not  the  worst  of  the  case.     There  are  de- 


NO  APOLOGY  FOR  CRIME.  173 

grees  in  evil ;  and  bad  as  it  may  be  to  bribe  a  man,  it  is 
still  worse  to  kill  him.  Yet  to  this  extent  has  the  race- 
hatred sometimes  gone,  by  which  the  worst  men  in  the 
South  have  placed  themselves,  and  the  States  of  which  they 
are  taken  (very  unjustly  it  may  be)  to  be  fair  representa- 
tives, beyond  the  pale  of  Northern  sympathy  or  support. 
Do  our  Southern  friends  realize  how  hard  such  violence 
makes  it  for  their  fi-iends  at  the  North  to  defend  them? 
The  intelhgent  people  in  New  York  and  in  New  Eng- 
land fuUy  appreciate  the  diflSlculties  of  the  South,  and  are 
ready  to  make  all  reasonable  excuses  and  palliations.  But 
no  sooner  do  we  get  the  temper  of  the  Northern  mind  a 
little  subdued,  than  there  comes  a  story  of  a  negro  shot  in 
cold  blood,  or  a  white  man  assassinated  for  no  other  rea- 
son than  that  he  voted  the  RepubHcan  ticket,  and  all  our 
arguments  are  knocked  into  flinders.  "We  cannot  apolo- 
gize for  such  dastardly  crimes ;  nor  can  we  keep  our  own 
blood  from  boiling  when  we  hear  of  them.  Those  who 
connive  at  them,  play  into  the  hands  of  the  most  fiery 
element  at  the  North.  If  Southern  politicians  wish  to 
keep  the  North  solid  against  them,  they  have  but  to  let 
their  Ku  Klux  Klans  and  "Regulators"  continue  to  fur- 
nish fuel  to  kindle  the  fires  of  popular  indignation. 

I  have  had  many  talks  with  Southern  men  in  regard  to 
these  matters,  in  which  they  have  spoken  with  the  utmost 
frankness.  They  aU  deprecate  violence,  and  regret  any 
violations  of  law.  They  admit  that  it  is  a  hard  necessity 
which  compels  them  to  extreme  measures  for  their  own 
protection.  But  they  say,  "Self-preservation  is  the  first 
law  of  nature.  "We  must  fight  fire  with  fire.  If  we  can- 
not keep  our  self-government  in  one  way,  we  must  in  an- 
other. It  is  aU  that  is  left  us,  and  we  should  be  less  than 
men  if  we  did  not  fight  for  it."  Sometimes  a  planter 
describes  his  own  situation,  surrounded  by  blacks,  whose 


174  IS  THERE  NOT  A  BETTER  WAY  ? 

votes  would  quite  overwhelm  him  and  all  the  whites  he 
could  muster ;  and  then  he  turns  to  me  abruptly,  and  says, 
"Pwi  yourself  in  my  place  I  what  would  you  do  f  Would  you 
let  everything  go  to  ruin,  or  do  aU  in  your  power  to  pre- 
vent it  ?  "  This  is  an  embarrassing  question,  and  if,  through 
delicacy,  I  remain  silent,  he  will  perhaps  think  that  it  ad- 
mits of  but  one  answer,  and  justifies  any  measure  of  re- 
pression or  suppression  of  what  would  prove  so  great  a 
calamity.    Wherefore  candor  compels  a  reply. 

As  my  Southern  friends  are  so  frank  with  me,  they  will 
not  be  offended  if  I  am  equally  frank  with  them.  They 
know  me,  not  only  as  a  personal  friend,  but  as  a  friend  of 
their  people.  Perhaps  I  may  presume  so  far  on  my  friend- 
ship as  to  say  a  few  words  in  the  utmost  kindness  to  those 
whose  prosperity  is  very  near  to  my  heart. 

Is  there  not  a  better  way  to  deal  with  the  negro  vote 
than  to  suppress  it,  viz  :  to  admit  it,  and  see  if  you  can- 
not control  it  by  some  legitimate  means  ?  You  say,  "  This 
is  a  white  man's  government,  and  we  will  never  submit  to 
be  ruled  by  an  inferior  race."  Very  well  I  Certainly  one 
who  himself  belongs  to  the  white  race,  will  not  object  to 
its  retaining  its  supremacy  if  it  be  by  fair  means,  by  su- 
perior intelligence  or  character ;  but  he  does  object  to  a 
supremacy  that  can  only  be  kept  by  fraud  and  by  force. 

Suppose  you  should  try  an  experiment.  At  the  risk 
of  your  smiUng  at  my  simplicity,  I  will  venture  to  ask. 
Is  there  not  a  way  of  giving  the  negroes  some  sort  of 
political  education  ?  If  I  were  an  old  planter,  surround- 
ed by  my  former  slaves,  it  seems  to  me  (perhaps  if  I  had 
tried  it,  I  should  be  a  sadder  and  a  wiser  man)  that  I 
would  not  only  put  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  their  voting, 
but  encourage  them  to  vote — only  I  would  try  to  persuade 
them  to  vote  what  I  thought  the  right  ticket.  Some  may 
think  it  useless  to  waste  argument  on  those  who  are  so 


EDUCATION  THE  ONLY  REMEDY.  It5 

dull,  or  so  dogged  in  their  prejudices  and  hatreds ;  but 
after  all  the  negro  is  not  a  fool,  and  I  wiU  not  believe, 
until  convinced  to  the  contrary,  that  he  cannot  be  led  to 
see  what  is  for  his  own  interest. 

If  the  blacks  are  suspicions  of  special  instruction,  as  if 
you  wanted  to  gain  some  advantage  over  them,  at  least 
they  cannot  resist  the  uplifting  force  of  general  education, 
which  wiU  act  upon  them  as  it  does  upon  the  latest  and 
freshest  and  rawest  of  our  foreign  importations.  Here  in 
New  York  we  have  shiploads  of  ignorance  emptied  almost 
daily  upon  our  shores.  What  do  we  do  with  them  ?  There 
is  but  one  thing  that  we  can  do — convert  that  ignorance  into 
intelligence.  This  wiU  take  a  whole  generation,  but  it  is 
the  only  possible  means  of  safety. 

What  is  wise  at  the  North  is  wise  at  the  South.  The 
negro  stands  on  the  same  ground  as  the  foreign  emigrant, 
both  utterly  unfitted  to  be  entrusted  with  the  ballot.  But 
since  they  are  entrusted  with  it,  it  must  be  ours  to  see  that 
they  know  how  to  use  it.  We  must  deal  with  the  negro 
vote  as  we  do  with  the  foreign  vote.  The  only  remedy 
for  ignorance  is  knowledge ;  and  as  we  have  a  vast  system 
of  education  for  the  children  of  the  poorest  who  come  to 
us  from  foreign  shores,  so  the  same  system  of  common 
schools,  not  only  furnished,  but  enforced,  for  a  whole  gen- 
eration, will  elevate  the  African  race.  The  South  is  at  this 
moment  using  the  most  effectual  measures  to  remove  the 
unfitness  of  the  negro  for  the  suffrage,  by  its  widespread 
system  of  colored  schools.  Let  the  good  work  go  on 
When  the  schoolmaster  is  abroad  in  the  land,  there  vdll 
be  raised  up  in  time  a  laboring  population,  no  matter  how 
poor  or  how  humble,  not  below  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
foreign  contingent  of  our  New  York  democracy,  and  quite 
intelligent  enough  to  exercise  the  right  of  voting  without 
danger  to  the  State. 


ne  FEAR  OF  NEGRO  DOMINATION. 

In  discussing  this  question,  we  are  embarrassed  by  the 
apprehension  wbich  seems  to  pervade  the  South,  of  negro 
domination — a  fear  that  surprises  us  in  a  people  of  such 
unbounded  courage.  Setting  one  race  over  against  the 
other,  such  a  transfer  of  dominion  seems  not  within  the 
range  of  possibility.  No  matter  how  the  blacks  may  in- 
crease, they  can  never  be  a  match  for  the  superior  intel- 
ligence and  power  of  organization  of  the  whites.  Yet 
even  Mr.  Grady,  (whose  death,  while  these  pages  are  going 
through  the  press,  has  awakened  universal  sorrow,)  a  man 
who  had  seen  too  much  of  public  affairs  to  be  easily  fright- 
ened, thought  it  necessary  to  sound  the  alarm.  Mr.  George 
W.  Cable,  who,  though  a  Southern  man,  now  lives  at  the 
North,  and  takes  what  some  of  us  would  consider  an  ex- 
treme Northern  view  of  the  case,  in  a  recent  address  said  : 

**My  opinions  have  been  uninfluenced  by  the  talk  about  the 
*  New  South.'  The  only  'New  South'  is  the  industrial  South, 
and  the  change  there  is  only  partial  and  along  the  line  of  the 
mineral  belt.  Henry  W.  Grady's  speech  at  the  New  England 
dinner  at  New  York,  meant  little.  At  the  Texas  Agricultural 
Fair  a  few  months  ago,  he  called  on  an  audience  he  was  address- 
ing to  defend  to  the  last  drop  of  their  blood  the  principle  of  the 
white  man's  domination  of  the  negro  ! " 

This  was  certainly  a  stirring  appeal ;  but  was  there  any 
occasion  for  our  eloquent  friend  to  anticipate  a  change  so 
overwhelming?  Is  there  really  the  slightest  danger  of 
negro  domination  at  the  South?  If  it  ever  comes  to  a 
contest  of  arms,  there  would  not  be  a  battle,  but  a  mas- 
sacre. I  must  say  that  Mr.  Cable  expressed  himself  with 
more  justice  as  well  as  moderation,  when  he  said  : 

"My  own  notion  is  that  the  true  Southern  problem  is  not 
whether  the  white  man  shall  dominate  the  negro,  or  the  negro 
the  white  man.  If  it  were,  I  suppose  I  should  have  to  declare 
in  favor  of  the  whites.  But  the  problem  is  whether  American 
citizens  shall  not  enjoy  equal  rights  in  the  choice  of  their  rulers. 


DR.  CURRY  ON  THE  RACE  PROBLEM.       Ill 

It  is  not  a  question  of  the  negroes'  right  to  rule.  It  is  simply  a 
question  of  their  rig-ht  to  choose  rulers ;  and  as  in  reconstruc- 
tion days  they  selected  more  white  men  for  oflBce  than  men  of 
their  own  r^ce,  they  would  probably  do  so  now." 

But  as  Mr.  Cable  is  just  now  out  of  favor  at  the  South, 
I  will  quote  another  and  a  very  high  authority  on  South- 
em  questions,  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry  of  Kichmond,  late  Minis- 
ter to  Spain,  and  now  Administrator  of  the  Peabody  Fund 
for  Education  at  the  South,  who,  if  he  has  not  so  much  of 
the  ardor  of  youth,  has  the  wisdom  of  age,  and  who,  in 
an  address  before  the  Legislature  of  Georgia,  used  these 
plain  words : 

**  I  want  to  say  to  you  in  perfect  frankness,  that  the  man  who 
thinks  the  negro  problem  has  been  settled,  is  either  a  fanatic  or 
a  fool.  I  stand  aghast  at  the  problem.  I  don't  believe  civiliza- 
tion ever  encountered  one  of  greater  magnitude.  It  casts  a 
dark  shadow  over  your  churches,  your  government,  and  your 
future.  It  is  a  great  problem,  which  will  tax  your  energies. 
Georgia  was  once  Shermanized.  Georgia,  with  the  South  Afri- 
canized, as  it  may  be,  would  be  a  thousand  times  worse  than 
Shermanized. 

"But  you  may  make  the  outlook  as  black  as  possible,  and 
yet  ignorance  and  poverty  are  not  remedies  for  the  situation. 
Better  have  the  negroes  educated ;  better  that  they  should  have 
intelligent  preachers,  intelligent  industry,  improved  homes. 
"Which  is  better — to  brutalize  and  pauperize,  or  humanize,  civil- 
ize, and  Christianize?    I  leave  it  to  you  to  settle  the  problem. 

"There  are  people  who  say  this  ought  to  be  a  white  man's 
government.  I  am  not  prepared  to  contest  that  proposition ; 
-but  I  beg  you  to  remember  that  the  negroes— and  I  am  glad  of 
it — have  friends  at  the  North  who  are  befriending  them.  But 
they  are  not  coming  to  your  relief.  You  must  help  yourselves, 
if  you  are  helped  at  all. 

"I  know  that  the  indications  are  prophetic  of  a  race  con- 
flict. God  save  us  from  it !  I  know  that  dark  shadows  of  the 
future  are  flung  across  our  pathway.  It  is  idle  to  shut  our 
eyes.  It  is  better  to  meet  such  dangers  half  way,  even  though 
they  come  no  further.  There  is  nothing  per  se  in  a  white  skin 
unless  behind  that  skin  lie  the  hereditary  experiences  of  centu- 


178  A  CATASTROPHE  POSTPONED. 

ries  of  good  government.  I  know  that  the  negro  of  Africa  has 
no  invention,  no  discovery,  no  law,  no  literature,  no  govern- 
ment, no  civilization.  Why  ?  If  you  put  the  Caucasian  under 
the  same  environment,  and  keep  him  there  ten  or  twenty  centu- 
ries, there  will  be  no  invention,  no  science,  no  discovery,  no 
history,  no  civilization,  among  Caucasians.  Your  ancestors  and 
mine  were  once  pagans  and  cannibals.  "We  have  become  what 
we  are,  not  by  virtue  of  a  white  skin,  but  by  improving  govern- 
ment and  good  laws.  Let  the  negro  children  get  an  education 
where  yours  do  not — let  the  negro  be  superior  to  you  in  culture 
and  property — and  you  will  have  a  black  man's  government. 
Improvement,  cultivation,  education,  is  the  secret,  the  condition 
and  guarantee,  of  race  supremacy.  I  shall  astonish  you,  per- 
haps, by  saying  that  if  the  negro  developes  and  becomes  in 
culture,  property,  and  civilization  superior  to  the  white  man, 
the  negro  ought  to  rule.  You  are  to  see  to  it  that  he  does  not 
become  so.    The  responsibility  is  with  you." 

This  puts  things  in  rather  a  different  light.  It  lays  the 
responsibility  of  the  superiority  of  the  negro  race  (if  that 
should  ever  come)  upon  the  whites  themselves  ;  while  it 
fixes  the  period  so  far  away  that  it  would  need  an  inspired 
prophet  to  tell  the  date  of  its  coming.  As  the  time  at 
which  a  race  is  attaining  maturity  is  put  at  "  ten  or  twenty 
centuries,"  I  think  our  Southern  Mends  may  safely  post- 
pone the  catastrophe  of  negro  domination  to  the  next 
generation  I 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 
OLD  MASTERS  CARING  FOR  THEIR  OLD  SLAVES. 

"You  people  of  the  North  do  not  know  the  negro. 
Ton  draw  a  fancy  sketch,  as  Mrs.  Stowe  did  in  her  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,  and  fall  in  love  with  the  picture  of  your 
imagination.  But  that  is  not  the  real  African.  The 
negro,  pure  and  simple — that  is,  apart  from  all  romantic 
associations — is  not  an  attractive  creature.  He  is  gross  in 
body  and  dull  in  mind.  He  may  do  weU  enough  as  a 
laborer  in  the  lowest  kinds  of  work,  when  guided  by  the 
superior  intelligence  of  the  white  man ;  but  if  you  seek 
for  anything  higher  than  that,  you  will  not  find  it.  There 
is  no  fire  in  his  eye,  and  no  thought  in  his  brain.  If  you 
wish  to  make  a  man  of  him,  you  must  put  a  soul  inside  of 
his  body.  And  his  moral  state  is  as  low  as  his  intellectual. 
In  short,  he  is  very  far  down  in  the  scale  of  humanity: 
poor  and  ignorant ;  low  of  origin,  and  bad  by  nature  ; 
debased  by  every  vice,  and  capable  of  every  crime !  " 

Such  are  the  colors,  blacker  than  the  skin  he  wesirs, 
in  which  some  would  paint  the  negro  of  the  South.  As 
these  harsh  words  grate  upon  the  ear  of  the  stranger,  he 
is  tempted  to  reply  in  terms  equally  emphatic.     But  it  is 


180  THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  DARKEST  COLORS. 

better  to  keep  silence,  at  least  until  the  speaker  is  done. 
Let  the  blast  blow  itself  out :  it  is  not  till  the  storm  is 
past  that  there  is  any  chance  to  hear  the  stiU,  small  voice 
of  reason  and  of  truth.  Even  then  I  should  begin  my 
protest  very  modestly  by  confessing  that  this  wholesale 
depreciation  has  some  faint  shadow  of  truth,  just  enough 
to  give  it  plausibiHty.  You  say  that  the  negro  is  "poor" 
— it  is  true  ;  that  he  is  "ignorant" — it  is  true  ;  that  he  is 
"low  of  origin" — that  also  is  true  (although  it  is  nothing 
new  in  human  development — we  can  even  trace  back  our 
own  "  great  race  "  to  a  period  at  which  it  began  its  pro- 
cess of  evolution  at  the  lowest  point);  and  if  he  were 
"  bad  by  nature,"  that  would  be  only  the  natural  result  of 
conditions  so  unfavorable.  That  he  should  be  "  debased 
by  every  vice,  and  capable  of  every  crime,"  is  what  could 
be  said  with  equal  truth  of  thousands  in  all  our  great 
cities,  who  are  born  and  bred  under  conditions  equally 
unfavorable  to  virtue.  I  only  wonder  that  the  negro  is 
what  he  is,  when  I  think  whence  he  came,  and  through 
what  ages  of  suffering  he  has  passed. 

If  you  set  out  to  paint  him  as  black  as  you  can,  the 
materials  are  at  hand.  You  may  treat  him  as  a  naturalist 
would  treat  a  singular  variety  of  the  human  species,  and 
set  him  down  in  your  scientific  catalogue  as  a  freak  of 
nature.  You  may  confirm  your  theory  by  tracing  his  his- 
tory :  beginning  far  back  in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  and 
seeing  him  come  out  of  the  slime  and  ooze  of  the  jungle, 
with  his  very  blood  poisoned  by  malarious  swamps,  and 
his  imagination  haunted  by  murky  superstitions  which 
reflect  the  gloom  of  the  forest.  Traces  of  such  an  origin 
you  may  find  in  him  still,  in  which  he  bears  a  resemblance 
to  his  fathers,  who  offered  human  sacrifices.  I  admit  it 
all :  that  he  is  the  dark  child  of  a  Dark  Continent,  with 
the  stamp  of  oppression,   if  not   of  degradation,  on  his 


WHO  IS  TO  BLAME  FOR  IT  ?  181 

brow.  But  is  that  any  justification  of  •wrong?  How- 
ever low  and  degraded  he  may  be, 

**A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that" ; 

and  the  fact  that  he  is  poor  ^nd  ignorant,  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  take  advantage  of  him,  to  cheat  him,  or 
rob  him,  or  oj)press  him.  On  the  contrary,  his  very  help- 
lessness appeals  to  the  generosity  of  the  stronger  race  to 
reach  out  its  powerful  arm  to  lift  him  up. 

And  here,  if  I  were  replying  to  one  who  had  pronounc- 
ed this  sweeping  judgment  on  the  whole  African  race,  I 
would  add  one  parting  word  :  "  If  this  be  the  result  of 
your  experience  with  your  negroes,  did  it  never  occur  to 
you  as  just  possible  that  you  were  partly  responsible  for 
their  intellectual  and  moral  degradation  ?  Good  masters 
make  good  servants  :  why  is  it  that  yours  have  turned  out 
so  badly?  In  condemning  them,  you  condemn  yourself; 
and  the  best,  indeed  the  only,  atonement  you  can  make 
for  your  neglect  in  the  past,  is  to  befriend  and  help  them 
in  ihe  future." 

But  I  will  not  trust  myself  to  enter  into  an  argument 
with  men  who  in  the  days  of  their  power  were  violent  and 
cruel,  and  whose  attitude  towards  their  former  depend- 
ents is  still  that  of  hatred  and  contempt.  Nor  wiU  I  be  so 
unjust  as  to  reckon  all  old  masters  with  them.  In  the 
days  of  slavery  slaveholders  were  like  other  men  ;  having 
among  them  a  mixture  of  good  and  bad.  There  were  all 
sorts  of  masters  as  there  were  all  sorts  of  men..  There 
were  hard  masters,  and  there  were  kind  masters  :  and  it 
would  not  be  fair  that  one  class  should  suffer  for  the  sins 
of  the  other. 

Nor  have  their  characters  changed  with  their  condi- 
tion. The  old  master  who  was  hard  and  selfish,  will  be 
hard  and  selfish  still.     But  from  such  a  poor  example,  I 


182  GOOD  OLD  MASTERS. 

turn  to  one  of  .another  stamp.  Those  whose  memories 
reach  back  to  a  former  generation,  will  recall  many  a 
master  who  was  borne  to  his  last  resting  place  by  his 
faithful  servants,  who,  as  they  laid  him  down,  shed  bitter 
tears  over  the  grave  of  one  who  bad  been  their  greatest 
benefactor.  This  feeling  may  have  been  changed  in  some 
who  survived  the  war.  There  were  those  who  were  so 
soured  by  the  loss  of  their  slaves,  that  they  could  hardly 
bear  to  hear  them  spoken  of,  and  muttered  with  a  savage 
brutality,  "  Let  them  take  care  of  themselves  ;  let  them  go 
to  the  dogs !  "  But  others  there  were  who  had  been  kind 
and  gentle  before,  and  were  kind  and  gentle  still.  Had  you 
by  chance  met  one  of  them,  you  might  have  heard  him  say, 
"  These  poor  people  served  me  faithfully  while  they  were 
bondmen  :  I  will  be  their  friend  and  helper  now  that  they 
are  free."  In  losing  the  ownership  of  his  slaves,  he  did 
not  lose  his  interest  in  them  ;  but  stiU  cared  for  them,  and 
tried  to  smooth  their  path,  even  though  they  had  passed 
fi-om  under  his  control.  The  rupture  that  had  come  be- 
tween them,  was  like  the  tearing  asunder  of  the  parts  of 
the  human  body,  leaving  the  feet  to  walk  and  the  hands 
to  seize  the  implements  of  labor,  with  no  eyes  to  see,  and 
no  brain  to  guide  them.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive 
of  a  more  helpless  human  being  than  the  newly-emanci- 
pated slave — ^houseless,  homeless ;  without  food,  with  not 
even  a  hoe-cake  in  the  cabin ;  having  nothing,  doing  no- 
thing, and  earning  nothing.  Then  it  was  that  he  needed 
more  than  ever  a  friend,  and  a  friend  he  found  in  his  old 
master,  who  was  the  first  to  give  him  something  to  do. 
He  had  not  a  sixpence  to  buy  a  peck  of  corn  ;  his  old 
master  gave  him  wages.  Above  all,  he  needed  direction, 
and  to  whom  should  he  turn  so  soon  as  to  the  one  who 
had  been  his  guide  for  so  many  years,  and  who  now  took 
him  by  the  hand  like  a  child,  and  led  him  on  till  he  could 


PRESENT  DUTY  TO  THE  OLD  SLAVES.  183 

get  strength  to  walk  alone  ?  I  do  not  say  this  was  the 
case  with  all  old  masters — perhaps  not  with  the  majority; 
but  it  was  with  enough  to  redeem  the  race  from  the  re- 
proach of  selfish  indifference  to  the  suffering  of  their  fel- 
low-creatures. These  are  the  representatives  whom  I  have 
in  mind  as  "caring  for  their  old  slaves."  And  if  any  of 
my  Southern  friends  think  it  presuming  in  a  Northerner 
to  make  suggestions  to  them  as  to  how  they  should  treat 
their  former  dependents,  I  answer  that  I  only  give  you 
back  what  you  gave  to  me  ;  that  I  have  taken  my  models 
and  examples  from  among  yourselves,  and  taken  them  only 
to  give  them  the  honor  which  they  deserve,  and  to  hold 
them  up  to  universal  imitation. 

What  has  been  done  before  can  be  done  again,  and  on 
a  much  larger  scale,  and  with  much  greater  effect.  The 
help  which  the  old  master  can  give  his  old  slaves  is  not 
help  in  money.  That  perhaps  he  has  not  to  give  ;  and  if 
he  had,  it  would  only  do  mischief  to  scatter  it  about 
among  them,  for  it  would  only  make  them  more  careless 
and  improvident.  He  can  serve  them  better,  not  merely  by 
making  fair  bargains  with  them  and  paying  them  prompt- 
ly, but  by  taking  a  kindly  interest  in  their  welfare,  and 
helping  them  in  their  little  economies.  What  they  want 
is  intelligent  guidance — a  little  of  the  white  man's  brains 
to  show  them  how  to  pick  up  something  for  themselves, 
and  how  to  keep  it  tiU  they  get  enough  to  buy  a  little 
cabin  and  a  few  acres  of  ground,  to  make  a  home,  for  that 
is  the  starting-point  of  all  that  is  good  in  them.  Perhaps 
they  do  not  need  to  be  urged  to  send  their  children  to 
school,  for  they  are  said  to  be  very  eager  that  they  should 
learn  ;  but  a  little  encouragement  never  comes  amiss  as  a 
means  of  help,  both  intellectual  and  moral.  I  place  an 
emphasis  on  the  last  word,  as  it  marks  the  point  of  great- 
est weakness  in  the  ex-slave,  where  he  needs  most  the 


184  WANT  OF  MORAL  STAMINA  IN  NEGROES. 

benefit  of  his  master's  example.  It  is  not  in  "  book-edu- 
cation," but  in  the  training  of  character.  The  complaint 
that  I  hear  constantly  may  be  thus  expressed  :  "  The  negro 
has  no  moral  stamina.  There  is  no  way  in  which  you  can 
get  hold  of  him,  legally  or  morally.  You  engage  him  to 
work  for  you  a  week,  and  he  will  work  two  or  three  days, 
and  then  leave  you  with  no  reason  except  that  he  takes  it 
into  his  foolish  head  that  he'd  rather  go  a-fishing!  He 
has  no  conscience  about  it,  no  moral  sense,  and  no  force  of 
will,  or  persistence  in  anything  that  he  undertakes.  Such 
a  creature  is  hardly  a  responsible  being,  and  you  must  cre- 
ate the  elements  of  a  moral  nature — reason,  conscience, 
and  will — before  you  can  deal  with  him  as  an  intelligent 
subject  of  law  and  a  member  of  civilized  society." 

You  say  they  are  wanting  in  moral  stamina  ;  but  where 
should  they  get  moral  stamina  but  from  you,  their  former 
masters,  who  are  still  in  their  eyes  the  highest  types  of 
manhood,  their  heroes  and  examples?  The  negro  is  at 
once  a  very  observing  and  a  very  imitative  creature.  He 
can  see  the  difference  in  white  folks — between  the  "  poor 
trash "  and  the  man  to  whom  all  look  up  ;  and  so  he  can 
see  the  difference  between  what  used  to  be  called  on  the 
plantation  a  "  low-down  nigger,"  and  a  black  man  whom 
the  whites  as  well  as  the  blacks  regard  with  respect.  At 
the  same  time  his  very  habit  of  mimicry,  which  is  a  pecu- 
liar gift  of  the  race,  leads  him  to  imitate  what  others  ad- 
mire. He  apes  the  air  and  the  style  of  his  old  master. 
If  he  was  coarse  and  vulgar,  his  chief  show  of  manhood 
being  his  swearing  and  swaggering  manner,  he  cannot  ex- 
pect the  old  slave  to  improve  upon  his  model.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  he  possessed  that  highest  virtue,  self-con- 
trol, which  never  burst  out  into  a  furious  passion,  but  was 
always  quiet  and  restrained,  it  had,  and  still  has,  a  power- 
ful effect  upon  his  old  slave.    In  order  to  command  others 


TO  BE  TREATED  LIKE  CHILDPEN.  185 

one  must  first  command  himself,  and  his  example  will  be 
more  powerful  than  any  authority. 

Of  course  in  dealing  with  a  people  that  are  so  careless 
and  heedless,  there  will  be  many  things  very  discouraging. 
Some  of  my  Southern  friends  are  getting  weary  of  this 
constant  pushing  up-hill  the  heavy  stone,  that,  the  instant 
it  is  let  go,  comes  rolling  to  the  bottom.  But  I  venture 
to  say  to  them.  Be  a  little  patient !  Lay  aside  your  con- 
temptuous manner  towards  the  colored  brethren,  even  if 
you  have  to  put  up  with  some  manifestations  of  joy  in 
their  new-found  liberty  that  may  provoke  a  smile.  It  is 
the  natural  consequence  of  that  "  holy  estate  "  of  liberty 
whereinto  they  have  come,  that  they  should  be  at  first 
somewhat  dazed  and  bewildered.  They  are  "like  them 
that  dream,"  and  in  the  intoxication  of  their  first  sense  of 
freedom  and  independence,  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if 
some  of  their  performances  were  not  rather  grotesque. 
All  this  is  in  the  course  of  nature,  and  is  no  more  to  be 
resented  or  criticized  than  the  caperings  of  a  young  colt 
that  "  feels  his  oats,"  and  being  let  loose,  starts  off  on  a  run. 
By-and-by  he  will  sober  down,  and  be  subdued  to  the  quiet 
and  dignified  jog  of  a  useful  worker  in  the  world. 

Eecognizing  all  this,  the  colored  people  of  the  South 
are  to  be  treated  with  the  greatest  possible  kindness.  The 
negro  is  not  an  abnormal  specimen  of*  humanity  :  he  is 
simply  a  child,  and  to  be  treated  as  a  child.  If  you  have 
a  child  that  is  rather  dull  and  slow  of  improvement,  you 
do  not  beat  him,  but  teach  him,  and  have  long  patience 
with  him,  till  finally  you  make  a  man  of  him.  So  these 
Americans  "  of  African  descent  "  are  but  children  in  under- 
standing, and  are  to  be  treated  like  children,  not  with 
severity  on  the  one  hand,  nor  fond  indulgence  on  the 
other.  Treat  the  negro  as  a  brute  and  a  savage,  and  you 
make  him  one.     Hunt  him  as  a  wild  beast  in  the  swamps 


186  THE  HARDEST  TRIAL  OF  PATIENCE. 

with  bloodhounds,  and  you  may  yet  feel  his  vengeance  in 
the  deadly  shot  fired  on  a  lonely  road,  or  in  the  flames  of 
your  burning  dwellings.  But  treat  him  kindly,  and  trust 
to  the  better  nature  that  is  in  him  to  respond  to  kindness. 
If  he  does  not  respond,  so  much  the  worse  for  him  ;  but 
you  at  least  have  done  your  duty.  But  do  not  then,  in  the 
excess  of  your  good  nature,  turn  round  and  flatter  him,  so 
as  to  fill  him  with  conceit,  for  that  is  the  worst  possible 
thing  for  him.  It  is  worse  than  cruelty — indeed  it  is  the 
greatest  cruelty.  The  negro — ignorant,  simple  creature 
that  he  is — is  easily  flattered,  and  while  under  this  influ- 
ence, he  loses  the  little  sense  that  he  has ;  he  does  not 
know  whether  he  stands  on  his  head  or  his  feet,  and  is 
easily  made  the  tool  of  a  demagogue,  who  wishes  to  use 
him  for  his  own  selfish  purposes.  Ignorant  people  are  apt 
to  be  suspicious,  and  are  often  shy  of  their  best  friends, 
whilst  giving  their  confidence  and  their  votes  to  impostors 
and  deceivers ;  and  it  would  not  be  strange  if  the  negroes 
were  at  first  to  shake  their  heads,  and  think  that  the  old 
master  had  some  selfish  purpose  to  gain  by  his  unexpected 
kindness.  All  this  is  a  state  of  things  which  requires  the 
most  delicate  handling.  Such  distrust  can  only  be  re- 
moved by  degrees.  But  in  time  unfailing  kindness  will 
do  its  work,  by  bringing  the  old  masters  and  their  former 
slaves  into  a  muti»l  understanding  and  good  feeling,  that 
will  be  for  the  prosperity  and  the  happiness  of  both. 

Perhaps  the  most  severe  trial  of  patience  is  to  labor  for 
those  who  are  not  grateful  for  it.  Ingratitude  is  an 
infirmity  that  belongs  to  our  poor  human  nature,  and  we 
must  not  expect  the  colored  people  to  be  free  from  it. 
Coupled  with  this  there  is  often  a  self-sufficiency  that  is 
very  discouraging.  Northern  teachers  who  have  gone 
Soath  to  teach  the  colored  people,  thereby  exposing  them- 
selves to  social  ostracism,  have  acknowledged  to  me  that 


''a  very  slow  business."  18T 

their  greatest  trial  was,  not  the  hostility  of  the  whites,  nor 
even  the  ignorance  and  stupidity  of  the  blacks,  but  their 
self-sufficiency  Not  long  ago  I  visited  a  University,  which 
had  some  hundreds  of  colored  students,  and  as  I  watched 
the  long  procession  of  young*  men  fiHng  out  from  their 
halls,  a  Professor  said  to  me,  "  There  is  not  one  of  them 
who  does  not  think  that  he  is  competent  to  run  the  whole 
concern !  "  Naturally,  their  teachers  are  pained  at  this 
want  of  appreciation  and  of  gratitude  for  the  services 
which  they  render  at  very  great  cost  to  themselves.  But 
what  of  that  ?  If  we  wait  for  gratitude  as  the  reward  for 
doing  good,  we  shall  accomplish  but  little  in  this  world. 
Even  Christ  pleased  not  Himself,  and  it  is  enough  that  the 
disciple  be  as  his  Master,  and  the  servant- as  his  Lord. 

"  But  this  is  very  slow  business  !  "  Of  course  it  is  slow, 
as  all  the  great  processes  of  nature  are  slow.  "  It  may 
take  years !  "  Yes  :  and  it  may  take  generations.  But  is 
not  the  end  worth  all  the  toil  and  the  delay  ?  To  educate 
one  mind,  to  form  one  character,  to  bring  one  sinner  home 
to  God,  is  often  the  work  of  a  lifetime,  and  that  life  is  not 
spent  in  vain.  What  then  is  it  to  Hft  a  whole  people  out  of 
the  depressed  state  in  which  they  have  been  for  ages  ? 

The  first  condition  of  doing  anything  is  to  appreciate 
the  greatness  of  the  work.  We  are  too  ready  to  rush  to 
the  conclusion  that  everything  was  done  for  the  negro  by 
the  war,  whereas  the  work  was  only  then  begun.  It  indeed 
emancipated  the  slaves  ;  it  gave  them  the  same  rights  that 
belong  to  other  citizens  of  the  Kepublic  ;  but  it  did  not 
change  their  nature  any  more  than  it  changed  their  color; 
it  did  not  make  one  hair  white  or  black.  Those  who  were 
ignorant  and  degraded  before,  are  ignorant  and  degraded 
still.  In  order  to  change  that  condition,  we  have  to  edu- 
cate, not  by  units,  but  by  milUons — an  undertaking  that 
may  well  appal  us  by  its  magnitude. 


188  A  GREAT  OPPORTUNITY. 

Here  is  the  great  opportunity  of  the  Repubhc,  and  of 
Christian  civilization — to  raise  up  an  inferior  race  to  the 
level  of  our  own.    This  is  at  once  the  greatest  and  the  most 
difficult  work  that  was  ever  attempted  by  man.     But  it  is 
the  work  that  God  has  given  us  to  do,  and  blessed  is  he 
who  has  a  part  in  it.     And  to  have  a  part,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  be  in  a  public  station — a  governor  or  a  legislator  : 
for  it  will  be  accomplished  in  private  spheres,  by  the  per- 
sonal influence  of  good  men  of  one  race  coming  in  con- 
tact with  the  masses  of  the  other.     You  may  make  all  the 
laws  in  the  world,  and  enforce  them  by  aU  your  power, 
civil  and  military  :  they  do  not  touch  the  seat  of  the  dis- 
ease.    The  poison  is  in  the  blood ;  in  the  profound  mu- 
tual distrust  which  divides  the  two  races.     How  is  this  to 
be  overcome  ?    How  are  they  to  be  brought  together  ?    In 
the  advance  towards  a  better  understanding,  the  stronger 
race  must  lead  the  way.     The  white  man,  in  his  inter- 
course with  the  blacks,  never  forgets  his  own  superiority. 
Then  he  must  accept  its  obligations.    Noblesse  oblige,  and 
the  first  of  all  its  obligations  is  courtesy  to  inferiors. 
Kindness  disarms  distrust,  and  begets  confidence — a  warm 
atmosphere  in  which  prejudices  and  animosities  dissolve 
and  die.      There  is  no  heart  so  hard  that  it  can  resist 
a  love  which  "never  faileth."    The  true  solvent  of  the 
Race  Problem,  as  of  all  social  questions,  is  gentleness, 
not   the   gentleness  of   weakness,  but  the  gentleness  of 
power.      "Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me  great,"  is  the 
Divine  method ;  and  so  in  human  relations,  a  gentleness 
that  is  at  once  subdued  and  strong  is  the  very  breath  of 
God.    It  is  the  South  wind,  causing  the  spices  to  flow  out. 
And  what  healing  influences  will  come  from  the  school- 
houses!     Already  "the  woods  are  full  of  them,"  hum- 
ming like  so  many  hives  of  bees ;  in  which  the  noble  army 
of  teachers,  faithful  men,  and  faithful  women,  too — God 


WHAT  MAY  BE  IN  THE  NEXT  CENTURY.  189 

bless  them!  —  are  working  in  the  spirit  of  their  Master 
for  the  uplifting  of  a  lowly  race.  Work  on,  brave  hearts ! 
We  send  you  our  word  of  cheer  and  of  hope.  There  is  a 
better  day  coming,  though  we  shall  not  live  to  see  it.  But 
whatever  any  of  us  can  do,  little  though  it  be,  will  not  be 
lost.  Long  after  we  are  dead  and  gone,  the  seeds  of  kind- 
ness, sown  by  voice  or  pen,  wiU  spring  up  and  blossom 
from  the  dust.  And  at  last,  in  some  far-off  future  year, 
will  the  desired  end  come,  when  no  man  shall  vex  his 
neighbor,  since  universal  love  brings  universal  peace. 
Then — in  the  middle  of  the  next  century,  it  may  be — 
a  generation  not  yet  born  may  see  those  happier  times 
which  our  eyes  are  not  permitted  to  behold. 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

A  CAMP-MEETING  IN  THE  WOODS,  WITH  A  FEW  WORDS 
TO   MY  COLORED  BRETHREN. 

The  desire  to  do  full  justice  to  one  side  of  a  question, 
often  leads  to  injustice  to  the  other — a  danger  I  have  felt 
from  the  beginning  of  this  discussion.  While  trying  to 
present  the  case  of  the  whites  of  the  South  in  the  most 
favorable  light,  I  have  feared  that  I  might  seem  unsympa- 
thetic with  those  who  had  suffered  from  the  more  power- 
ful race.  If  it  were  a  mere  question  of  sympathy,  I  should 
always  be  on  the  side  of  the  weak  against  the  strong. 
But  it  is  not  a  matter  of  feeling,  but  of  truth  and  of  justice, 
in  which  one  needs  to  be  on  his  guard  against  being  led 
away  by  his  sympathies,  so  as  to  impair  the  value  of  his 
judgment. 

Have  I  really  leaned  to  the  stronger  side  ?  Then  I  will 
try  to  restore  the  balance  by  leaning  to  the  other  ;  and  my 
last  words  shall  be  to  my  colored  friends.  In  these  I  hope 
they  will  not  think  that  I  assume  a  condescending  or 
patronizing  tone.  I  do  not  wish  to  pat  them  on  the  back, 
or  delude  them  with  high-sounding  promises  to  the  ear, 
that  will  be  broken  to  the  hope.  I  love  them  too  much  to 
deceive  them.    As  the  only  true  kindness  is  in  perfect 


CAMP-MEETING  IN  THE  WOODS.  191 

frankness,  I  -wish  that  my  parting  words  should  at  least 
bear  this  proof  of  what  I  feel  so  deeply. 

But  it  is  very  awkward  to  talk  in  a  familiar  way 
with  those  at  a  distance  :  it  seems  as  if  I  were  shooting 
into  the  air,  and  over  the  heads  of  everybody  within 
hundreds  of  miles,  with  a  vague  idea  that  somehow  and 
somewhere  I  should  hit  somebody.  Now  if  I  am  to  talk, 
I  like  to  have  my  hearers  near  enough  to  see  the  whites 
of  their  eyes ;  and  so,  if  you  do  not  object,  I  will,  for 
the  purpose  of  this  familiar  talk,  suppose  ourselves  to  be 
assembled  in  a  big  camp-meeting,  in  a  grove  of  live  oaks — 
those  magnificent  trees  which  are  the  glory  of  the  South- 
ern forests,  and  which,  when  bearded  with  moss,  seem  like 
the  veterans  of  another  generation,  looking  down  upon  their 
puny  descendants  at  their  feet.  Here  there  is  ample  space 
for  you  all  to  rest  at  your  ease,  leaning  against  the  trees, 
or  sitting  on  the  ground,  if  perchance  the  talk  should  be 
a  httle  dull,  or  you  can  prick  up  your  ears  if  there  be  any- 
thing worth  listening  to.  I  can  promise  only  that  it  shall 
be  the  advice  of  a  sincere  friend.     With  this  I  begin  : 

Men  and  brethren !  The  Lord  has  brought  you  out  of 
the  house  of  bondage!  He  has  set  before  you  an  open 
door,  leading  to  a  straight  path  of  safety  and  of  peace  ; 
but  He  does  not  compel  you  to  walk  in  it :  it  is  left  to  you 
to  take  your  own  course.  Hence  my  first  word  to  you — 
and  the  last  also — is  this  :  Your  fate  is  in  your  own  hands  ; 
the  great  work  for  your  race  must  be  done  by  yourselves. 
If  any  of  you  have  got  an  idea,  because  of  the  way  in 
which  you  were  cared  for  by  your  old  masters,  that  you 
are  to  be  "carried"  as  long  as  you  live,  the  sooner  you 
get  rid  of  it  the  better.  Even  if  they  were  ever  so  kind 
and  ever  so  willing,  they  could  not  do  everything  for  you, 
and  they  ought  not  if  they  could,  for  it  would  only  keep 
you  in  a  state  of  perpetual  childhood.     The  sooner  you 


192  ABRAHAM  AND  HIS  CABIN. 

come  to  a  "realizing  sense"  that  you  have  got  to  take 
care  of  yourselves,  the  better  it  will  be  for  you.  Nor  must 
you  look  to  the  Government  to  provide  for  your  wants. 
It  is  not  the  business  of  the  Government  to  feed  black 
men  any  more  than  to  feed  white  men.  There  is  but  one 
law  for  white  and  black  :  He  who  will  not  work  neither 
shall  he  eat.  This  little  word  of  four  letters  is  the  key  to 
Paradise. 

As  I  am  saying  this,  I  see  a  man  of  large  stature  and 
great  bodily  strength  standing  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
wood,  in  doubt  whether  to  accept  this  hard  doctrine. 
Let  him  not  be  in  a  hurry  about  it ;  but  go  off  a  little  way, 
and  sit  down  under  a  solitary  oak,  where  nobody  will 
disturb  him,  and  he  can  do  "  a  heap  o'  thinking."  Indeed, 
if  we  can  "  let  up  "  on  the  talking  for  a  few  minutes,  and 
vary  the  exercises  with  a  spell  of  singing  (which  stirs  the 
blood,  when  roUed  out  by  such  magnificent  voices),  I  will 
go  and  sit  down  by  him  for  a  little  private  conversation. 

"  Well,  Abraham  " — I  use  this  name  as  one  that  is 
familiar  to  me  and  has  pleasant  associations — "how  do 
you  like  being  a  free  man  ?  "  He  answers  slowly,  "  Things 
ain't  quite  so  easy  as  they  used  to  be  on  the  old  planta- 
tion." "  Yes  :  I  know  it,  but  think  what  you  have  gained 
by  the  exchange.  True,  you've  got  only  a  mere  patch  of 
ground  with  a  log-cabin  upon  it.  It's  'mighty  little/ 
Yes,  but  it's  yours.  And  Dinah,  who  keeps  it  for  you,  is 
yours,  and  no  man  can  take  her  from  you  ;  and  the  little 
merry  faces  that  I  see  around,  grinning  with  their  white 
teeth,  and  laughing  out  of  their  eyes — all  are  yours! 
They  may  not  be  as  well  dressed  as  white  folks'  children, 
but  Dinah  will  patch  up  their  tattered  garments  ;  and  as 
long  as  you  can  scratch  ground  in  that  garden  patch  fast 
enough  to  keep  them  in  hoe-cake  and  corn-dodgers,  and 
they  are  plump   as   so  many  rabbits,  you  need  not  be 


DON^T  CALL  ON  CJESAR  FOR  HELP.  193 

troubled.  Isn't  it  something  to  work  for  '  your  own  self? 
You  are  no  man's  slave,  and  can  sit  before  your  humble 
door  when  the  day  is  done,  and  sing  : 

*  We  own  de  hoe,  we  own  de  plough, 
We  own  de  hands  dat  hold ; 
We  sell  de  pig,  we  sell  de  cow, 
But  nebber  chile  be  sold.' 

"What  a  motive  you  have  in  that  wife  and  children  to  work, 
since  you  can  enjoy  all  the  fruits  of  your  labor  which  God 
giveth  you  under  the  sun !  Then  work,  and  work  hard ! 
That's  the  price  of  anything  that  is  to  be  gained  in  this 
world.  Quiet  industry  will  make  you  comfortable  and 
respectable.  That  is  the  way  you  are  to  make  your  own 
position,  without  *  calling  on  Cijesar  for  help,'  unless  it  be 
the  Caesar  and  Pompey  in  the  next  cabin. 

"And  now,  Abraham,  remember  this  one  word  :  You 
must  work  out  your  own  salvation !  No  man  can  do  it 
for  you  :  you  must  do  it  for  yourself.  You  must  fight 
your  own  battles,  not  with  sword  and  gun,  but  *  wid  de 
shovel  and  de  hoe.'  That  old  hoe  is  the  best  weapon 
that  was  ever  put  into  the  hands  of  a  man,  white  or  black. 
The  Lord  put  it  into  the  hands  of  Adam  when  he  got  into 
a  bad  way  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  it  has  been  a 
mighty  instrument  to  keep  his  descendants  from  going  to 
the  bad  ever  since.  As  long  as  you  keep  hold  of  the  hoe- 
handle,  you  keep  your  hands  out  of  mischief,  and  that  is 
no  small  thing  in  this  wicked  world." 

As  this  kind  of  talk  seems  to  make  an  impression, 
when  I  go  back  to  "  the  stand,"  I  look  about  and  spy 
another  huge,  lumbering  fellow,  and  fixing  upon  him  my 
"glittering  eye,"  I  talk  to  him  in  the  same  direct  fash- 
ion :  "Is  it  not  a  shame  that  you,  an  able-bodied  man, 
should  *  lie  around '  and  waste  your  time,  when  once  you 
could  work  like  a  hero  ?    You,  who  could  be  a  slave  for 


194  SAVE  YOUR  MONEY  ! 

your  master — can  you  not  be  a  slave  for  yourself,  and  for 
your  wife  and  children?  Think  about  it,  and  keep  on 
thinking  till  you  get  the  idea  so  deep  into  your  head 
that  it  will  stay  there.  If,  as  some  sneeringly  say,  your 
slowness  in  receiving  ideas  is  because  nature  has  pro- 
vided you  with  a  better  protection  for  the  brain  than  for 
us  thin-skinned  and  thin-skulled  white  folks,  the  same 
physiological  fact  ought  to  make  it  easier  for  you,  when 
once  you  have  got  hold  of  an  idea,  to  keep  it  locked  up  in 
this  secure  repository  of  the  most  precious  things  which 
you  have  to  carry. 

There  is  another  idea  which  I  would  like  to  drop  into 
that  iron-bound  chest,  viz  :  that  you  not  only  work  now 
and  then,  by  fits  and  starts,  but  regularly,  as  white  men 
do — every  day  in  the  week,  and  so  many  hours  a  day.  If 
you  only  work  three  days,  and  are  idle  the  rest,  you  will 
always  be  a  vagabond,  a  loafer,  and  a  beggar.  What  you 
need  is  to  form  a  habit  of  industry  that  will  become  to 
you  a  second  nature. 

A  third  idea,  which  is  literally  worth  its  weight  in  gold, 
though  I  shall  charge  you  nothing  for  it,  is.  Save  what  you 
earn !  Your  wages  may  be  small ;  but  no  matter  how 
small  they  be,  you  can  save  a  little  of  them.  Do  you  not 
spend  some  of  your  hard-earned  money  for  drink  ?  That 
is  a  great  deal  worse  than  throwing  it  away.  Keep  away 
from  those  vile  dens  in  the  woods,  that  are  worse  than 
rattlesnakes'  holes!  If  you  can  save  the  sixpences  that 
go  into  that  bottomless  pit,  in  a  few  weeks  they  will  count 
up  some  shillings,  or  even  dollars,  enough  to  put  into  a 
savings  bank.  That  marks  the  point  where  a  black  man's 
fortune  begins  to  turn.  His  name  will  no  longer  be  pre- 
fixed with  a  word  spelled  with  two  gs  ;  and  when  it  gets 
around  among  his  people  that  he  has  money  in  the  l)ank  (!), 
they  will  speak  of  him  as  Mr.  Jones ! 


GET  A  HOME  !  195 

But  I  do  not  urge  you  to  save  your  money  in  order  to 
make  a  miser  out  of  you  ;  but  that  you  should  get  a  home, 
which  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  aim  and  end  of  every  hard- 
working man,  white  or  black.  It  wiU  be  the  happiest 
moment  of  your  life  when  you  can  go  into  a  little  cabin, 
and  look  round  on  the  rough  walls,  and  say,  "This  is 
mine  I  It  isn't  Master's.  Fm  Master  !  '*  Ah,  my  friend,  I 
know  not  what  transport  you  may  feel  when  yoa  pass  over 
the  waters  of  death,  and  your  feet  touch  the  heavenly 
shores  ;  but  this  side  of  Jordan  there  is  no  keener  pleasure 
than  when  you  enter  your  humble  dwelling.  It  is  yours. 
Nobody  has  given  it  to  you  :  nobody  except  the  Creator, 
who  gave  you  strong  arms  and  a  strong  will  to  take  care 
of  yourself. 

But  perhaps  some  of  you  are  not  content  with  the  log- 
cabin,  however  neat  and  trim  it  may  be,  or  with  the  shovel 
and  the  hoe.  It  is  too  much  like  being  on  the  old  planta- 
tion. Well,  for  my  part,  I  consider  the  cultivation  of  the 
earth  to  have  been,  from  the  time  of  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
the  most  honorable  occupation  of  man.  But  if  your 
young  fellows  look  for  "  something  higher,"  there  is  no  law 
to  keep  them  in  the  cabin,  or  on  the  five-acre  lot :  they 
can  go  into  the  towns  and  cities,  where  they  wiU  find  me- 
chanical employments  open  to  them.  The  danger  is  that, 
having  no  trade  to  work  at,  they  will  not  find  anything  to 
do,  and  so  will  wander  about  the  streets,  and  become  just 
as  useless  as  would  the  same  number  of  white  vagabonds. 
But  if  they  are  in  earnest  to  work,  and  ready  to  take  what- 
ever comes  to  hand,  they  can  soon  make  a  place  for  them- 
selves. They  can  become,  not  only  hostlers  and  teamsters 
and  draymen,  but  skilled  mechanics.  In  Atlanta  colored 
men  are  blacksmiths,  masons,  carpenters,  and  house-build- 
ers, and  work  side  by  side  with  white  mechanics,  with  no 
friction  between  them. 


196  BE  KIND  TO  ONE  ANOTHER. 

In  this  way  the  negro  can  soon  take  care  of  himself. 
If  he  is  a  good  mechanic,  he  will  find  plenty  to  do.  Of 
course,  if  he  is  a  poor  workman,  he  must  not  expect  to  be 
employed  simply  because  of  his  color.  But  let  him  show 
superior  skill,  and  he  will  not  stand  idle.  If  there  be  in 
Atlanta  a  bright-eyed  and  strong-limbed  son  of  Africa, 
who  has  got  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  blacksmith 
in  the  city,  the  Southerner  who  has  his  stable  full  of 
blooded  horses  will  ride  by  the  open  forges  of  aU  the 
white  blacksmiths,  to  find  the  man  who  can  shoe  his  horse 
in  the  best  way.  No  man  ever  hated  the  negro  to  such  a 
degree  that  he  did  not  prefer  a  good  black  mechanic  to  a 
poor  white  one ! 

My  next  word  may  surprise  you  :  Be  kind  to  one 
another!  I  should  not  presume  to  say  this,  as  if  you  were 
in  any  special  need  of  it,  if  it  were  not  for  what  I  hear 
about  you.  But  some  who  have  had  to  do  with  colored 
people  all  their  lives,  teU  me  that,  however  subservient 
they  may  be  to  white  folks,  they  are  by  no  means  gentle 
among  themselves ;  that  fathers  whip  their  children  with- 
out mercy ;  and  that  negroes  placed  over  others  do  not 
prove  the  most  indulgent  "bosses";  that  a  little  authority 
turns  their  heads  ;  that  they  Hke  to  show  their  power,  and 
that  this  makes  them  hard,  often  to  the  point  of  cruelty. 
They  tell  me  that  on  the  old  plantation  a  slaveholder  could 
do  nothing  that  would  so  soon  create  a  panic  on  the  place, 
as  to  give  his  people  a  black  overseer,  as  he  was  pretty 
sure  to  be  more  rough  in  the  field  than  a  white  man.  A 
friend  from  Virginia  recently  told  me  that  if  a  negro  was 
arrested  on  a  charge  of  crime,  his  first  request  was  that 
there  should  be  no  one  of  his  own  color  on  the  jury  ;  that 
his  instinct  told  him  that  white  men  would  be  more  len- 
ient to  his  infirmities,  big  or  Httle,  than  those  of  his  own 
race. 


PLAYING  WITH  FIRE.  197 

These  are  not  pleasant  things  to  hear.  I  do  not  know 
that  they  are  true.  You  know  better  than  I.  But  if  they 
are  true,  you  can  hardly  expect  your  white  friends,  how- 
ever kind-hearted  they  may  be,  to  be  very  considerate  of 
your  feelings  or  your  interests,  when  you  are  indifferent  to 
the  feelings  or  interests  of  your  colored  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, who  may  be  in  a  condition  of  the  greatest  poverty 
and  helplessness.  "  Bear  one  another's  burdens,"  and  you 
win  find  your  white  neighbors  very  willing  to  bear  your 
burdens  with  you. 

And  that  leads  to  another  point  that  is  all-important  to 
your  comfort  and  happiness  :  Do  not  let  anybody  per- 
suade you  that  white  folks  are  unfriendly  to  you.  Some 
of  your  own  race  go  about  saying  such  things,  and  stirring 
up  hatred.  But  whoever  whispers  this  to  you,  be  he  white 
or  black,  is  a  very  bad  adviser.  If  you  listen  to  him,  you 
will  always  be  in  hot  water  ;  in  a  sour,  ugly  mood,  making 
threats,  and  watching  for  a  chance  of  retaliation. 

Be  careful !  You  are  playing  with  fire  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  inflammable  materials.  It  is  very  easy  to  stir  up 
passion  ;  it  is  not  so  easy  to  control  it.  If  ever  there 
should  come  the  awful  calamity  of  a  race-war,  it  will  come 
by  the  preaching  of  this  fiery  gospel  of  hatred  and  re- 
venge. Of  course  there  is  enough  to  stir  up  the  excitable 
African  nature.  Here  is  a  powerful  negro,  who  is  not 
a  bad  fellow  at  heart,  but  is  maddened  by  the  memory 
of  cruelties  in  the  old  days  of  slavery,  when  perhaps  he 
was  subjected  to  the  lash  to  "break  his  spirit."  Such 
a  man  may  easily  be  converted  into  a  desperado,  lurk- 
ing in  swamps,  only  to  emerge  now  and  then  to  do  some 
deed  that  thrills  the  land  with  horror.  It  is  easy  to  see 
where  his  career  will  end  ;  but  were  it  not  better  to  tame 
this  African  lion  before  he  becomes  so  desperate  and  so 
terrible  ?    And  if  he  cannot  be  tamed  by  the  whites,  the 


198         POLITICAL  DUTIES  :    GOING  TO  THE  POLLS. 

very  sight  of  whom  rouses  all  the  hatred  within  him,  let 
him  be  held  in  check  by  his  own  kindred.  If  I  had  the  ear 
of  your  leaders — for  you  have  leaders  as  much  as  we — I 
would  implore  them,  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  their 
race,  to  restrain  the  fury  of  the  more  violent  among  you, 
lest  it  become  a  contagion  of  madness,  spreading  rapidly 
and  wildly,  and  involve  your  whole  people  in  one  common 
ruin. 

But  for  you  who  have  no  wrongs  to  embitter  you,  these 
suspicions  are  as  foolish  as  they  are  wicked.  Throw  all  this 
stuff  to  the  dogs !  When  the  tempter  comes,  say.  Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan !  The  white  men  are  not  your  enemies, 
but  your  best  friends.  They  help  you  by  giving  you  work 
to  do  ;  they  pay  you  wages ;  they  tax  themselves  for 
schools  for  your  children ;  they  encourage  you  to  help 
yourselves  ;  and  if  you  would  only  listen  to  the  advice 
they  give,  and  follow  it,  it  would  be  a  great  deal  better  for 
you  and  for  your  children. 

But  I  have  said  nothing  yet  about  your  political  du- 
ties :  these  I  have  left  to  the  last,  because  I  think  them 
the  least  of  all  God's  mercies,  and  the  most  unimportant 
to  your  present  weU-being.  "  But,"  you  ask,  "  do  you  mean 
that  we  shall  give  up  the  rights  that  have  been  given  to  us 
by  the  laws  of  the  country  ?  "  By  no  means.  But  there 
is  a  difference  between  having  a  right  and  exercising  it. 
The  latter  is  a  matter  of  time  and  judgment.  I  may  not 
surrender  a  single  one  of  my  legal  rights,  and  yet  there 
may  be  reasons  sufficient  to  myself  why  I  should  defer 
asserting  them  to  a  more  convenient  season.  And  so,  my 
good  friends,  the  less  you  talk  and  think  about  "  politics," 
the  better  it  will  be  for  you.  If  you  can  go  to  the  polls  and 
vote  quietly,  without  getting  into  trouble  with  your  white 
neighbors,  do  so  ;  but  do  not  go  armed,  for  the  good  rea- 
son that  in  a  pitched  battle  you  will  be  sure  to  be  beaten — • 


GOOD  ADVICE  :   DO  NOT  TAKE  YOUR  GUNS  !        199 

[no  matter  what  your  numbers  may  be,  they  will  be  no 
match  for  the  superior  intelligence  and  organization  of 
your  adversaries] — and  further,  you  will  gain  more  by 
waiting  than  by  fighting.  For  the  present  your  strength 
is  to  sit  stiU.  Time  will  do  for  you  more  than  you  can  do 
for  yourselves. 

We  sometimes  get  wisdom  from  an  unexpected  source  ; 
and  not  long  ago  I  found  this  nugget  of  gold  from  Mr. 
C.  P.  Huntington,  one  of  the  half  dozen  men  who  built 
the  first  railroad  to  the  Pacific.  Some  months  since  he 
was  down  in  Mississippi,  and  happened  to  be  present  at  a 
gathering  of  colored  people,  whom  he  addressed  in  a  few 
plain,  homely  words,  that  seemed  to  cover  the  whole  case. 
He  said  : 

**Boy8,  you  must  be  industrious!  Save  your  money,  and 
put  it  into  land.  If  you  do  this,  you  will  soon  own  the  soil, 
and  command  the  respect  of  your  enemies  and  the  confidence 
of  your  friends.  You  will  have  to  learn  to  deny  yourselves  the 
gewgaws  which  it  seems  so  easy  for  you  to  spend  your  money 
for.  If  justice  is  slow,  do  not  get  impatient,  for  it  will  come  in 
the  course  of  time.  Go  to  the  polls,  hut  do  not  take  your  guns  I 
If  you  are  not  permitted  to  vote,  go  again,  and  keep  on  going 
patiently  as  a  silent  protest  against  this  political  in^'ustice  ;  and 
in  time  you  will  have  your  rights,  with  the  capacity  to  use  them 
wisely." 

As  to  this  whole  political  business,  one  word  of  caution : 
Don't  expect  too  much  from  the  General  Government! 
I  know  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world,  when 
you  get  into  straits,  to  call  on  the  power  at  Washington  to 
help  you  out,  and  party  papers  echo  the  cry.  Just  now 
we  hear  a  loud  call  upon  Congress  to  secure  to  the  negroes 
at  the  South  "a  free  ballot  and  an  honest  count" — an 
admirable  thing  to  do,  if  there  were  not  several  big  stum- 
bling-blocks, veritable  boulders,  in  the  way,  which  no  one 
has  pointed  out  more   clearly  than  President  Harrison, 


200  A  WARNING  FROM  THE  PRESIDENT. 

who  in  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  March  3,  1886,  showed  the 
difficulty,  even  the  impossibility,  of  doing  this  very  thing. 
He  said  : 

"I  have  looked  hopefully  in  the  old  times  to  the  forcible 
intervention  of  the  General  Government.  I  have  thought  that 
it  might  be  possible  under  that  stringent  legislation  which 
Congress  adopted,  by  the  forcible  intervention  of  the  Federal 
authority,  to  protect  them  [the  negroes]  in  those  rights  of  which 
they  were  so  cruelly  deprived.  But  I  have  ceased  to  have  faith 
in  the  possibility  of  that  intervention  in  their  behalf,  constituted 
as  this  Government  is,  with  its  complex  organization  of  Federal 
and  State  governments,  independent  within  certain  limitations. 
In  the  States  and  in  the  tribunals  which  they  establish,  and  in 
the  venue  where  the  offences  are  committed,  crimes  against  the 
colored  people  must  be  tried.  Of  necessity  the  successful  vindi- 
cation of  the  rights  of  these  people  fails  unless  there  is  a  senti- 
ment in  the  locality  where  the  offences  are  to  be  examined  into 
and  punished  that  reprobates  and  condemns  them." 

If  such  be  the  language  of  our  Chief  Magistrate,  who 
was  elected  partly  because  of  his  pronounced  political 
opinions  in  regard  to  the  rights  of  the  colored  people,  to 
the  defence  of  which  he  is  pledged,  not  only  by  party  ties, 
but  by  his  personal  sympathies  and  aU  his  public  career, 
we  may  well  hesitate  in  urging  the  Government  to  a  policy 
which  the  head  of  the  Government  has  already  declared  to 
be  impossible.  Better  wait  a  little  longer,  even  though  it 
be  at  the  cost  of  some  hardship,  than  precipitate  a  conflict, 
which  can  only  end  in  disaster  and  defeat. 

Meanwhile  is  there  not  something  else  to  think  about 
than  going  to  election  ?  Does  it  really  make  any  difference 
in  your  corn  crop  ?  "  De  yam  will  grow,  de  cotton  blow," 
no  matter  who  is  Governor;  and  if  you  should  stay  at 
home  on  election  day,  and  spend  it  in  your  garden,  while 
others  go  tearing  by  on  horseback,  you  wiU  have  no  reason 
to  be  ashamed  if,  when  they  come  riding  home  at  night  a 
little  the  worse  for  wear,  they  see  the  pretty  picture  of  a 


KEEP  YOUR  SELF-RESPECT.  201 

neat  little  cabin,  with  roses  in  the  window,  and  vines  run- 
ning over  the  door ! 

But  brighter  than  the  roses  are  the  snapping  eyes  of 
your  children,  as  they  shine  when  they  come  home  from  the 
little  school-house  in  the  woods.  They  are  big  with  the 
sense  of  knowing  something  which  "Daddy"  did  not 
know  ;  and  as  they  climb  upon  his  knees,  and  prattle  of 
the  lessons  in  spelling  and  in  reading  they  have  learned, 
the  old  creature's  heart  swells,  half  with  sadness  and  half 
with  pride,  that  they  have  opportunities  that  were  denied 
to  him.  The  most  touching  picture  in  the  New  South  is 
that  of  a  former  slave,  with  grizzled  head  bent  fondly  over 
his  child,  listening  eagerly  as  he  hears  the  first  words  read 
out  of  the  Bible  from  those  tender  lips ! 

With  such  elements  of  happiness,  my  poor  friend,  your 
lot  in  life  is  not  very  hard,  even  though  you  should  not 
have  the  honor  of  voting  or  being  voted  for.  Take  what 
you  have,  and  be  thankful  to  God  for  it,  though  there  may 
be  other  things  which  you  desire,  but  do  not  possess. 

To  make  your  happiness  complete,  I  would  that  you 
could  be  Hfted  up,  not  with  pride,  but  with  genuine,  manly 
self-respect.  To  this  end  I  beg  you,  do  not  try  to  be  what 
God  never  made  you  to  be,  and  what  you  cannot  be,  how- 
ever much  you  try.  The  great  trouble  with  the  colored 
people  of  the  South,  is  that  they  want  to  be  white  folks. 
But  can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin  ?  In  this  foolish 
desire  to  be  what  they  can  not  be,  they  lose  the  opportu- 
nity to  be  what  they  can  be  :  to  take  a  position  of  their 
own,  in  which  they  can  keep  their  independence  and  their 
self-respect. 

Can  anything  be  more  childish  than  to  complain  that 
we  are  not  treated  with  proper  consideration?  I  some- 
times hear  a  good  honest  colored  man  say  "white  folks 
don't  treat  him  'spectful,"  by  which  he  means  that  they 


202  SOCIAL  EQUALITY. 

wont  have  anything  to  do  with  him  socially.  Well,  then, 
my  good  fellow,  if  I  were  in  your  place,  I  wouldn't  have 
anything  to  do  with  them.  They  like  to  be  by  themselves, 
and  so  do  you,  for  you  feel  a  great  deal  more  free,  and 
enjoy  yourself  better  ;  and  if  I  were  in  your  place,  when  I 
wanted  to  have  a  good  time,  I  wouldn't  have  any  white 
folks  around  I 

In  this  matter  of  social  position,  those  of  the  colored 
people  who  are  most  worthy  of  respect,  have  a  becoming 
pride,  which  leads  them  to  hold  themselves  in  a  position 
of  reserve.  One  of  them  writes  to  me  :  "  As  to  social 
equality  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  colored  people, 
either  North  or  South,  have  any  desire  to  intrude  them- 
selves upon  the  whites.  They  have  intelligence  enough 
to  know  that  social  equality  is  a  matter  which  must  be 
regulated  entirely  by  individual  preference."  If  aU  had 
this  feeling  of  dignity,  there  would  be  no  trouble :  for, 
as  our  friend  truly  indicates,  these  are  matters  regulated 
by  an  instinctive  feeling  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other  ; 
and  the  less  attempt  there  is  to  use  force  or  compulsion 
of  any  kind,  the  better.  There  are  things  which  the  law 
cannot  do  :  it  cannot  change  a  man's  skin  ;  it  cannot 
make  l^im  white  or  black  ;  nor  can  it  eradicate  his  natural 
instincts  ;  so  that  we  need  to  be  careful,  in  our  zeal  for 
humanity  in  general,  not  to  attempt  the  impossible,  nor  to 
force  a  union  which  nature  does  not  permit. 

Nor  should  your  equanimity  be  disturbed  if  white  folks 
should  have  the  bad  manners  to  speak  of  you  with  an 
affectation  of  contempt.  What  if  they  do  ?  Hard  words 
don't  kill  anybody.  Perhaps  they  laugh  at  your  efforts  to 
take  care  of  yourself.  Never  mind !  Only  just  work  a  little 
harder,  and  by-and-by  the  laugh  may  be  on  the  other  side. 
A  man  who  is  a  man — whose  heart  is  clean,  and  whose 
hands  are  used  to  toil — can  hold  his  own  against  the  world  I 


THE  creator's  STAMP  ON  YOUR  BROW.  203 

Now  it  is  very  easy  to  give  advice,  and  to  say  what  we 
would  do  if  we  were  somebody  else ;  but  I  sometimes 
like  to  think  what  I  would  do  if  I  were  a  black  man. 
I  would  not  try  to  make  myself  white,  nor  would  I  regard 
my  color  as  a  degradation.  What's  in  a  name  ?  One  of 
the  most  famous  regiments  in  the  English  army,  is  known 
as  the  Black  Watch,  as  one  of  its  greatest  heroes  was 
called  the  Black  Prince.  Was  not  the  name  as  honorable 
as  if  he  had  been  called  the  White  Plume,  or  any  other  fancy 
title  that  might  be  given  to  him  as  a  leader  of  chivalry  and 
romance  ?  The  Bible  speaks  of  one  who  was  "  black  but 
comely."  So  there  are  many  of  a  darker  skin  than  ours, 
but  of  splendid  physique,  as  fine  types  of  manly  strength 
and  beauty  as  any  that  we  can  show.  If  I  were  black,  I 
would  not  ask  my  Creator  to  change  my  skin  by  a  single 
shade.  I  would  say,  This  is  the  badge  of  my  descent; 
this  is  the  stamp  which  the  fiery  sun  of  Africa  has  burned 
upon  my  brow.  I  accept  it  as  the  token  by  which  the 
Greater  would  distinguish  mine  among  the  races  of  men, 
and  I  will  make  it  honored  in  the  sight  of  the  world ! 

And  so  it  is  being  raised  up  to  a  place  of  honor  and 
respect.  With  all  that  is  dark  in  the  sky  above,  there  is 
light  breaking  all  round  the  horizon.  If  your  race  has 
long  seemed  to  present  a  dead  level  of  inferiority,  there 
are  heads  cropping  up  here  and  there  that  wiU  not  be  kept 
down.  Young  men  are  taking  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
tunities for  a  higher  education  than  that  in  the  common 
schools.  At  the  South  there  are  numerous  institutions  for 
colored  students,  such  as  Lincoln,  Howard,  and  Biddle, 
which  are  thronged  by  those  eager  to  obtain  the  benefits 
of  knowledge ;  while  from  Hampton,  General  Armstrong 
sends  out  hundreds  of  lusty  fellows,  strong  of  limb,  and 
not  at  all  deficient  in  intelligence,  who  are  both  ready  to 
work  and  apt  to  teach,  to  be  teachers  in  the  schools  which 


204  PROGRESS  IN  THE  RIGHT  DIRECTION. 

are  being  established  everywhere  in  the  South  for  the 
children  of  their  race.  At  the  North,  here  and  there  one 
has  entered  a  college,  in  which  all  the  teachers,  and  almost 
every  one  of  the  pupils,  are  whites.  At  the  last  Com- 
mencement at  Williams  I  saw  a  black  student  come  on 
the  platform  with  the  class,  and  receive  his  diploma  from 
the  hands  of  the  President.  Another  has  graduated  at 
Harvard  with  such  honor  that  he  has  received  a  Govern- 
ment appointment  in  "Washington.  Another  has  been 
chosen  by  the  present  Senior  class  as  its  orator  at  the 
next  Commencement — a  very  high  honor,  which,  we  are 
assured,  he  owes  to  no  favor  or  party  feeling,  but  to  his 
own  indomitable  spirit :  for  it  is  said  that  he  began  by 
working  in  a  barber's  shop,  to  earn  money  to  get  an  edu- 
cation. This  is  the  stuff  that  men  are  made  of,  and  a  race 
that  produces  many  such  cannot  be  kept  down. 

AU  this  is  progress  in  the  right  direction.  To  be  sure, 
it  may  be  asked.  What  are  these  among  the  millions  to  be 
raised  up  out  of  the  depths  of  ignorance  ?  Little  indeed  ; 
but  it  is  something  that  there  are  signs  of  life  stirring  in 
the  sluggish  mass  of  that  vast  population.  In  this  new 
exodus  from  bondage,  the  emancipated  slaves  have  a  long 
road  to  travel  before  they  reach  the  Promised  Land.  But 
it  is  something  to  see  the  head  of  the  column  coming  up 
out  of  the  wilderness,  with  their  faces  turned  to  the  rising 
sun. 

Li  that  column  you  can  be  in  the  front  rank,  if  you  are 
worthy  of  it.  My  ambition  for  you  is  that  you  should  rise  to 
a  true  manhood ;  that  you  should  become,  not  white  men, 
but  3VIEN,  who  will  respect  yourselves,  and  so  compel  the 
respect  of  others.  This  is  not  to  be  gained  by  selling  your 
votes  at  the  polls,  or  being  flattered  and  cheated  by  dema- 
gogues, but  by  the  humbler  method  of  tilling  the  soil,  in 
which  will  grow,  not  only  corn,  but  every  manly  virtue. 


A  HAPPY  DREAMER.  205 

The  continual  struggle  with  nature,  which  developes  the 
physical  strength,  also  developes  character.  He  who  casts 
his  seed  in  the  ground,  and  hath  long  patience  for  it, 
waiting  for  the  early  and  the  latter  rain,  thereby  learns  a 
lesson  of  trust  in  God ;  and  sor  that  which  is  a  school  of 
industiy,  becomes  also  a  school  of  faith  and  hope.  In 
such  lowly  places  springs  up  the  consummate  flower  of 
piety.  A  beloved  minister,  now  dead  and  gone,  used  to 
tell  me  of  a  parishioner  of  his,  a  colored  man  who  was 
very  old,  but  who  was  never  so  happy  as  when  working  in 
his  little  garden,  singing  to  himself  in  a  low  voice, 

*'  Dis  one  ting  I  find : 

Dat  He  can't  go  to  glory 
And  leave  me  behind." 

That  faith  is  a  light  springing  up  in  a  dark  place.  It  makes 
the  humblest  home  fuU  of  peace  and  bright  with  hope. 
If  any  among  you  be  so  poor  as  not  to  have  a  roof  to 
cover  you ;  if  you  have  to  sleep  on  the  cold  ground,  and 
rest  your  head,  like  Jacob,  on  a  stone,  yet  even  then  you 
may,  like  him,  dream  a  dream  in  which  you  shall  see  a 
ladder  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  the  angels  of 
God  ascending  and  descending  upon  it. 

Dream  on,  weary  sleeper !  There  is  more  wisdom  in 
your  dreams  than  in  the  pride  of  your  waking  hours. 
Anchor  your  hopes  fast  to  the  throne  of  God,  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  all  that  is  good,  and  of  all  our  hopes  for 
your  race  and  for  mankind.  "When  I  think  of  all  the  diffi- 
culties and  perplexities  that  beset  this  Race  Problem,  the 
prospect  is  very  dark  ;  the  sky  is  black  with  clouds  ;  and 
I  am  almost  in  despair,  and  should  be  utterly  so  but  for 
my  temperament  and  my  faith.  But  I  am  an  incorrigible 
optimist,  with  a  temper  that  rebounds  like  a  spring  from 
the  heaviest  weight  the  instant  the  pressure  is  withdrawn. 
But  this  buoyant  spirit,  however  agreeable,  would  not  be 


206         STANLEY  IN  THE  FOREST  OF  THE  CONGO. 

very  wise,  if  it  had  not  something  to  rest  upon.  That 
something  it  has,  for  it  rests  on  the  eternal  foundations. 
I  believe  in  the  future,  because  I  believe  in  God.  When 
all  is  dark,  I  turn  my  eyes  upward  and  see  a  Power  above, 
as  I  see  the  sun  in  heaven ;  and  seeing  that,  I  believe  that 
all  the  wrongs  of  ages  shall  be  made  right  in  the  better 
ages  to  come. 

We  have  all  been  reading  lately  of  the  wonderful  march 
of  Stanley  across  the  Dark  Continent.  Pushing  his  way 
from  sea  to  sea,  he  found  himself  entangled  in  a  forest  of 
apparently  illimitable  extent,  which  proved  by  actual  meas- 
urement to  cover  four  hundred  miles  of  latitude  and  as 
many  of  longitude,  so  that  it  was  as  large  as  the  whole  of 
France !  Into  this  wilderness  he  plunged  without  a  guide, 
forcing  his  way  through  deadly  swamps,  through  thickets 
so  dense  that  every  foot  of  advance  had  to  be  cut  with  an 
axe,  and  where  it  was  dark  even  at  midday,  as  trees  a  hun- 
dred, and  even  two  hundred,  feet  high  almost  shut  out  the 
light  of  heaven.  Yet  sometimes  he  had  a  vision  in  the 
night  that  reanimated  his  courage.  Lying  on  the  ground, 
he  looked  up  through  the  branches  of  the  trees,  and  saw 
the  stars  keeping  their  eternal  march.  As  some  great  orb 
rose  and  hung  in  the  deep  sky,  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  the 
eye  of  God  looking  down  upon  him  ;  and  the  faith  taught 
in  his  childhood  came  back,  and  he  believed  that  God 
would  carry  him  through.  So  after  more  than  five 
months,  he  came  out  at  last  on  the  highlands  that  over- 
look the  clear  waters  of  the  Albert  Nyanza,  one  of  the 
great  lakes  of  Africa. 

It  is  not  often  that  human  courage  has  to  face  such 
difficulty  and  danger.  But  there  is  a  wilderness  right 
here  in  our  own  country  more  dense  and  dark  and  impen- 
etrable, than  the  Forest  of  the  Congo.  It  is  in  the  Black 
Belt,  with  its  population  of  millions.     Here  is  darkness 


BEAR  AND  FORBEAR  TO  THE  END.       201 

that  may  be  felt.  It  is  a  part  of  that  greater  mystery  of 
the  African  race — a  mystery  which  casts  its  dark  shadow, 
like  the  sun  in  eclipse,  over  one-quarter  of  the  globe,  and 
one  large  portion  of  the  human  race.  How  is  it  that  a 
whole  Continent  should  be  foredoomed  to  eternal  night, 
and  a  whole  race  to  misery  without  measure  and  without 
end  ?  Here  we  are  lost  in  a  wilderness  so  deep  and  dark 
that  we  cannot  find  our  way  out,  but  God  can  lead  us  out, 
and  He  mil. 

To  my  colored  friends  I  say.  Be  of  good  courage !  I 
do  not  mean  to  belittle  your  hardships  ;  to  make  light  of 
them  as  if  they  did  not  exist :  they  do  exist.  But  what- 
ever they  may  be,  bear  and  forbear  even  to  the  end.  If 
you  have  to  suffer  a  thousand  humiliations,  remember 
that  it  was  by  far  greater  humiliations  that  the  Saviour  of 
mankind  wrought  out  the  salvation  of  the  world.  So  the 
salvation  of  your  race  is  not  to  be  lightly  won :  it  must 
be  gained  by  silent  endurance  ;  by  toiling  and  suffering  ; 
by  industry,  by  patience,  and  by  peace. 

And  so  ends  our  camp-meeting.  If  it  has  seemed  to 
you  a  little  long,  you  can  shake  off  your  weariness  by 
rising  to  your  feet,  and  making  the  woodland  arches  ring 
with  a  parting  hymn.  To  you  has  been  given,  whatever 
else  be  denied,  the  gift  of  song,  by  which  you  touch  the 
heart  of  the  world.  Those  melodies  tell  the  story  of  your 
race,  as  in  their  plaintive  tones  are  heard  the  wail  of  the 
captive  and  the  sighing  of  the  bondman.  They  strike  a 
chord  of  pain,  till  through  them  there  breaks  a  strain  of 
hope,  that  swells  at  last  into  a  song  of  jubilee.  Who  that 
has  ever  been  present  at  a  camp-meeting  of  our  colored 
brethren,  can  forget  the  multitudinous  voices  that  mingle 
in  the  mighty  Hallelujahs,  that  make  the  air  to  tremble,  to 
which  we  listen  enchained  till  they  die  away  in  the  depths 
of  the  forest  ?    That  dying  strain  is  our  mutual  farewell. 


208  SEEING  THROUGH  A  GLASS  DARKLY. 

Here  I  leave  this  miglity  Kace  Problem,  over  whicli  I 
have  been  brooding  for  months,  but  which  I  make  no 
pretence  to  have  solved.  No  man  on  earth  is  wise  enough 
to  solve  it.  But  when  we  are  in  darkness,  we  must  grope 
towards  the  light,  and  even  then  the  light  comes  only  by 
degrees.  One  thing  I  hold  to  be  fixed  :  that  the  Problem, 
however  difficult,  is  to  be  wrought  out  and  to  be  settled 
here.  "We  are  not  to  get  rid  of  it  by  shipping  off  a  whole 
people  to  die  miserably  on  some  distant  shore.  This  is 
their  home  as  much  as  it  is  ours  ;  and  it  is  written  in  the 
book  of  fate,  that  the  two  races  are  to  remain  on  the  same 
soil,  inhabitants  of  the  same  country,  and  sharers  of  the 
same  destiny.  So  it  ought  to  be.  The  two  races  are  not 
natural  enemies  :  on  the  contrary,  they  are  indispensable 
to  each  other  ;  and  as  they  are  the  nearest  neighbors,  they 
ought  to  be  the  best  friends. 

We  have  seen  that  the  African  race,  which  we  have 
been  wont  to  regard  as  doomed  to  inferiority,  is  capable 
of  elevation,  and  that  under  the  stimulus  of  education,  it 
is  steadily  rising,  so  that,  even  if  it  should  not  become  the 
equal  of  our  boasted  white  race,  it  may  yet  attain  to  an 
honorable  place  among  the  races  of  the  world.  As  to  the 
social  and  political  antagonisms,  which  are  complicated  by 
race  antipathies,  by  jealousies  and  hatreds,  if  we  cannot 
extinguish  them,  we  can  relieve  the  strain  of  the  situation 
by  a  strict  regard  to  justice  and  humanity ;  by  kindness 
and  gentleness.  Thus  we  can  soften  bitterness,  and  slowly 
removing  obstacles  out  of  the  way,  may  "turn  the  hearts" 
of  the  two  races  towards  each  other.  But  when  we  have 
done  all,  we  have  still  to  confess  that  there  hangs  over 
the  future  a  veil  through  which  no  human  eye  can  see. 
The  final  solution  must  be  left  to  God  and  to  time. 


CHAPTEK  XVI. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  FRANKLIN. 

"Wlien  I  left  Atlanta,  and  turned  northward,  it  was 
delightful  to  feel  that,  at  last,  after  two  months  absence,  I 
was  homeward  bound.  My  friend,  Mr.  Cunningham,  who 
had  met  me  on  my  way  South  at  Chattanooga,  now  met 
me  again,  and  accompanied  me  to  Nashville.  Our  last 
day  together  had  been  on  Lookout  Mountain,  and  now  we 
were  to  pass  oyer  other  historic  scenes.  Middle  Tennes- 
see is  full  of  war  memories.  Here  is  the  field  of  Mur- 
freesboro,  which  tells  its  story  silently  in  thirty  thousand 
graves.  As  we  approach  Nashville,  the  crumbling  remains 
of  old  earthworks  that  once  girdled  the  city,  remind  us 
how  two  great  armies  were  once  camped  on  these  hills. 
But  just  now  my  eyes  were  turned  in  another  quarter, 
to  the  town  of  Franklin,  a  few  miles  south  of  Nashville, 
that  had  been  the  scene  of  a  battle  near  the  close  of  the 
war,  which,  though  less  in  the  number  of  those  engaged 
than  some  others,  was  contested  with  the  most  desperate 
courage  on  both  sides,  and  was  one  of  the  most  important 
in  its  results  to  the  Union  cause.  In  this  battle  Mr.  Cun- 
ningham had  borne  a  part  as  a  Confederate  soldier,  and 
he  had  told  me  so  much  about  it,  with  such  details  as 


210  VISIT  TO  FRANKLIN. 

brouglit  it  all  vividly  before  me,  that  I  had  it  in  mind,  if  I 
came  this  way  again,  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  historic  ground, 
that  from  a  study  of  its  geography,  and  of  the  position 
of  the  contending  armies,  I  might  be  able  to  appreciate 
the  tremendous  conflict,  and  do  full  justice  to  the  brave 
men  on  both  sides  who  perished  in  it. 

Accordingly  we  fixed  a  day  for  the  visit,  when  he  brought 
a  friend,  Major  Vaulx  (pronounced  Voss),  who  was  Inspec- 
tor-General to  Cheatham's  Division,  which  bore  a  leading 
part  in  the  battle.  Franklin  is  but  eighteen  miles  from 
Nashville,  and  a  half  hour's  ride  brought  us  to  the  sta- 
tion. As  we  entered  the  town,  we  had  the  good  fortune 
to  meet  Col.  McEwen,  an  old  resident,  who  was  here  when 
the  battle  was  fought,  and  from  his  front  door  witnessed 
it  all,  and  who  now  kindly  consented  to  accompany  us 
over  the  field,  and  give  us  the  benefit  of  his  personal  ob- 
servations. Later  we  had  also  Mr.  Carter,  whose  house 
was  such  a  centre  of  fire  from  both  sides,  that  he  and  his 
family  fled  to  the  cellar  for  safety.  Of  these  four  persons, 
three  were  eyewitnesses  of  the  battle ;  and  the  fourth,  if 
he  did  not  see  so  much,  it  was  only  because  the  roar  of 
conflict  was  going  on  over  his  head ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
battle  was  ended,  he  had  the  fullest  opportunity  to  visit 
the  field  while  it  was  yet  covered  with  the  dead  and 
wounded,  and  his  observations  wiU  come  in  in  the  proper 
place. 

As  the  points  to  be  visited  were  at  some  distance  from 
each  other,  my  first  step  was  to  engage  a  carriage  with 
two  horses,  with  a  negro  following  on  an  extra  horse  in 
case  any  of  our  party  preferred  to  make  his  observations 
from  the  saddle.  Thus  provided  with  the  best  of  guides, 
we  set  out  on  our  morning's  ride,  driving  directly  to  the 
line  of  entrenchment,  along  which  General  Schofield,  who 
commanded  the  Union  army,  drew  up  his  line  of  battle. 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  WAR.  211 

To  make  the  description  intelligible,  we  must  recall  the 
general  position  of  the  armies  in  the  South  in  the  Fall  of 
1864.     That  was  the  crisis  of  the  war.     Wliile  Lee  held 
Richmond,  he  could  do  nothing  to  sustain  the  fortunes  of 
the  Confederacy  in  any  other  part  of  the  field,  lest  he 
should  leave  the   Capital  to  his  vigilant  and  powerful 
enemy.    Hence  the  active  campaign  was  transferred  to 
the  farther  South,  where  Sherman  in  a  series  of  battles 
had  pushed  Johnston  back  to  Atlanta — a  movement  which 
created  such  alarm  that  he  was  removed,  and  the  com- 
mand given  to  Gen.  Hood,  who  had  shown  his  courage  on 
many  fields,  having  lost  an  arm  at  Gettysburg  and  a  leg 
at  Chickamauga,  but  who  in  his  mutilated  body  stiU  car- 
ried the  heart  of  a  lion.     He  inaugurated  his  campaign  by 
a  new  system  of  tactics.     Instead  of  manoeuvering  and 
retreating,  he  believed  that  battles  were  to  be  gained  by 
hard  fighting,  and  at  once  took  the  offensive,  and  fought 
three  bloody  battles,  but  could  not  save  Atlanta  from  sur- 
render.    Failing  to  shake   the  hold  of  his  adversary  by 
direct    attack,  he   undertook  a  movement  in  the  rear. 
Leaving  Sherman  in  Atlanta,  he  crossed  the  Chattahoochee 
with  an  army  of   more  than  forty  thousand   men,  and 
struck  into  Tennessee,  intending  to  cut  his  adversary's 
communications,  and  thus  compel  him  to  retreat  in  self- 
defence.    It  was  a  brilliant  plan  of  campaign,  and  might 
have  been  successful  if  the  Confederate  leader  had  not 
been  dealing  with  a  wary  old  soldier.     But  Sherman  was 
then  planning  his  march  to  the  sea,  and  did  not  mean  to 
be  diverted  fi-om  it.     That  was  a  bold  stroke,  but  not 
without  its  danger,  for  the  farther  he  got  away,  the  more 
he  left  the  enemy  free  to  sweep  the  country ;   and  so  it 
might    have    been    that  while    Sherman   was    marching 
through  Georgia  to  the  sea,  Hood  should  be  marching 
through  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  to  the  Ohio !     The  let- 


212  GENEKAL  SCHOFIELD. 

ters  of  Grant  written  at  the  time,  show  that  he  was  full  of 
anxiety  as  to  the  result. 

To  guard  against  the  danger  from  that  quarter,  it  was 
necessary  that  Sherman  should  leave  in  his  rear  a  suffi- 
cient force  to  deal  with  such  a  movement.  Accordingly, 
Thomas  was  left  in  command  at  Nashville,  and  Schofield  * 

*  If  proof  were  needed  of  the  great  value  of  institutions  for 
the  training  of  officers  who  are  to  be  at  the  head  of  armies,  it 
would  be  afforded  by  the  late  Civil  War,  in  which  the  same 
Military  Academy  furnished  the  leaders  on  both  sides.  In  the 
battle  that  is  here  described,  the  opposing  commanders  were 
not  only  both  graduates  of  West  Point,  but  members  of  the  same 
class,  entering  on  the  same  day,  and  had  spent  four  years  together, 
little  dreaming  that  they  should  ever  be  arrayed  against  each 
other  in  the  field. 

General  John  McAllister  Schofield  is  a  son  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  having  been  born  in  Chautauqua  county,  Sept.  29, 
1829.  He  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1853 — when  General 
Eobert  E.  Lee  (then  only  a  Captain  of  Engineers,  though  a 
Colonel  by  brevet  for  his  services  in  the  Mexican  War)  was 
Superintendent,  and  General  George  H.  Thomas  Instructor  of 
Artillery  and  Cavalry — in  the  same  class  with  General  Hood,  and 
also  with  -General  McPherson  and  General  Sheridan ;  while  in 
the  next  class  were  O.  O.  Howard  and  Thomas  H.  Euger,  after- 
wards Generals  in  the  Union  Army,  and  on  the  Confederate  side 
Generals  G.  W.  Custis  Lee,  John  Pegram,  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  the 
famous  cavalry  officer,  and  Stephen  D.  Lee,  who  commanded  a 
corps  at  Franklin.  On  his  graduation,  Schofield  was  assigned  to 
the  Second  Artillery,  and  yet  such  was  his  standing  as  a  student 
that  for  five  years  he  was  retained  at  West  Point  as  Instructor 
in  Natural  Philosophy ;  and  then  obtained  leave  of  absence  from 
the  army,  that  he  might  go  to  St.  Louis,  and  there  fill  the  same 
chair  in  Washington  University.  But  at  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war,  he  returned  to  the  army  with  the  rank  of  Captain,  and  was 
almost  immediately  promoted  to  be  Major  of  the  First  Missouri 
infantry.  He  subsequently  became  chief-of-staff  to  Gen.  Lyon. 
In  November,  1861,  he  had  been  promoted  to  be  brigadier-general, 
and  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Missouri  militia,  and  in 
April,  1862,  became  commander  of  the  district  of  Missouri.    In 


HOOD  CROSSES  THE  DUCK  RIVER.  213 

was  sent  with  two  corps  to  his  support.  But  even  with 
this  reinforcement,  Thomas  did  not  feel  strong  enough  to 
deal  the  crushing  blow  which  he  afterwards  gave  in  the 
battle  of  Nashville,  and  so  sent  Schofield  as  far  south  as 
Pulaski,  a  distance  of  eighty  miles,  to  keep  watch  of  Hood, 
falling  back  as  he  advanced,  and  thus  check  his  march 
northward.  At  Columbia  the  two  armies  were  separated 
only  by  a  river,  which  furnished  an  excellent  Hne  of  de- 
fence against  the  pursuer,  if  he  should  try  to  force  a  cross- 
ing at  that  point.  But  instead  of  this.  Hood  moved  east 
to  a  ford  five  or  six  miles  above,  from  which  Schofield 
at  first  supposed  that  he  would  turn  along  the  north  bank 
of  the  river,  and  attack  him  in  his  position  ;  but  he  soon 
learned  that,  instead  of  this,  his  antagonist  had  struck 
northwest  towards  Spring  Hill,  the  point  where  the  road 
by  which  he  was  marching,  would  strike  the  main  road 
from  Columbia  to  Franklin.  The  object  of  this  movement 
was  plain  :  it  was  to  place  Hood  between  Schofield  and 
Thomas,  who  was  at  Nashville,  and  thus  cut  the  Union 
army  in  two.    This  would  give  him  an  opportunity  to  fight 

the  Fall  of  1862  he  was  given  command  of  the  frontier,  including 
the  Kansas  as  well  as  Missouri  troops.  He  was  made  a  major- 
general  of  volunteers  Nov.  29,  1862,  and  after  distinguished 
services  in  different  fields  (especially  in  the  campaign  of  General 
Sherman  against  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  in  the  Summer 
and  Autumn  of  1864,  which  ended  in  the  capture  of  Atlanta,  and 
in  the  Battle  of  Franklin),  he  was  breveted  a  major-general  in 
the  regular  army.  In  July,  1867,  he  was  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  first  military  district.  In  1868  he  was  Secretary  of 
War.  The  following  year  he  was  assigned  to  the  command  of 
the  Department  of  the  Missouri,  and  was  made  a  full  major- 
general.  When  General  Hancock  died  he  was  assigned  to  the 
command  of  the  Division  of  the  Atlantic.  Since  the  death  of 
General  Sheridan,  he  is  the  senior  oflQcer  In  the  national  service, 
ranking  as  General  of  the  United  States  Army,  and  has  his  head- 
quarters in  Washington. 


214  MOVEMENT  TO  CUT  OFF  RETREAT. 

them  separately,  and  to  gain  a  victory  over  both.  If  he 
could  only  reach  the  road  before  troops  could  be  sent  to 
head  him  off ;  or  while  they  were  defiling  along  it ;  he  would 
have  his  adversary  at  a  terrible  disadvantage,  and  attacking 
him  in  the  flank,  might  strike  a  fatal  blow,  and  therefore  he 
gave  orders  that,  as  soon  as  the  head  of  the  army  reached 
Spring  HiU,  it  should  begin  an  immediate  attack — an 
order  the  execution  of  which  was  committed  to  General 
Cheatham,  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  trusted  leaders  of 
the  Southern  army ;  and  to  the  fact  that  this  commander 
did  not  make  the  attack,  and  that  the  Federal  Army  was 
able  to  pass  undisturbed.  Hood  ascribes  the  loss  of  his 
opportunity  to  win  a  great,  and  perhaps  decisive,  victory. 
In  his  volume  entitled  "Advance  and  Keteeat,"  which  now 
lies  before  me,  he  gives  a  fuU  history  of  the  campaign,  and 
dwells  at  great  length  on  this  failure,  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  sore  point  of  his  whole  military  career.  He  says 
that  he  led  the  army  in  person  to  within  two  miles  of  the 
Columbia  turnpike,  "  where,  sitting  upon  my  horse,  I  had 
in  sight  the  enemy's  waggons  and  men  passing  at  double- 
quick  along  the  Franklin  pike";  and  said  to  Cheatham, 
"General,  do  you  see  the  enemy  there,  marching  rapidly 
to  escape  us  ?  "  and  ordered  him  at  once  to  push  on  and 
seize  the  road  and  hold  it.  "What  was  his  amazement  and 
indignation,  an  hour  later,  when,  as  "twilight  was  upon 
them,"  Cheatham  rode  up,  not  having  executed  his  com- 
mand, and  Hood  "  exclaimed  with  deep  emotion,"  "  Gen- 
eral, why  in  the  name  of  God  have  you  not  attacked  the 
enemy,  and  taken  possession  of  that  pike  ? "  to  which 
Cheatham  replied  that  "  the  line  looked  a  little  too  long 
for  him,  and  that  Stewart  should  first  form  on  his  right." 
This  was  his  unpardonable  crime.  The  brave  soldier  had 
failed  in  the  hour  of  need,  and  to  his  dying  day  he  suffered 
from  the  imputation  of  culpable  negligence  I 


THE  OTHER  SIDE  OF  THE  STORY.  215 

This  is  one  side  of  the  story,  which  is  very  good  until 
you  hear  the  other.  But  the  friends  of  General  Cheatham 
by  no  means  admit  its  truth,  but  reply  with  much  indig- 
nation that  it  was  merely  an  attempt  to  throw  on  him  the 
blame  which  should  have  been  assumed  by  quite  a  differ- 
ent person ;  and  they  think  it  due  to  the  good  name  of 
the  brave  old  soldier,  now  that  he  is  sleeping  in  his  grave, 
that  this  unjast  imputation  should  be  removed.  Major 
Vaulx  writes  to  me  from  Nashville,  as  an  eye-witness  of 
that  which  he  describes,  that  the  responsibility  for  not 
attacking  Spring  Hill  (if  it  was  a  fault,  which  he  seems  to 
doubt)  should  rest  not  on  Cheatham,  but  on  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief.    He  says : 

**  Cheatham's  corps  was  in  advance  on  the  march.  As  it 
approached  Spring  Hill,  he  was  ordered  by  Gen,  Hood  to  form  it 
in  line  of  battle  in  front  of  the  Federal  army,  which  was  already 
in  position — an  order  which  he  promptly  obeyed,  forming  it 
from  left  to  right  as  each  division  came  up :  Bate  on  the  left, 
Cleburne  in  the  centre,  and  John  C.  Brown  (who  commanded 
Cheatham's  old  division)  on  the  right.  As  Brown  was  the  last 
to  arrive,  Cheatham  pointed  out  his  place  to  the  right  of 
Cleburne,  and  then  gave  him  orders,  as  soon  as  his  division  was 
formed  in  two  lines,  to  move  his  right  brigade  forward  and 
attack  the  Federals,  who  were  posted  south  and  west  of  Spring 
Hill,  with  their  line  curved  round  on  the  east  side  of  the  town. 
Cheatham  told  Brown  that  he  would  order  Cleburne  to  attack  on 
hearing  his  guns  ;  and  that  as  soon  as  Cleburne  became  engaged, 
he  would  order  Bate  also  to  advance.  "With  this  Cheatham 
turned  and  rode  back  to  give  the  order  to  Bate,  expecting  every 
moment  to  hear  the  signal  from  behind  that  the  battle  was 
begun,  and  kept  asking  impatiently,  '  Why  don't  we  hear  Brown's 
guns  ?  '    The  reason  was  soon  explained. 

"While  Brown  was  forming  his  division,  General  Strahl,  who 
commanded  his  right  brigade,  reported  to  him  that  he  had  dis- 
covered a  line  of  Federal  infantry  on  a  wooded  hill,  in  such  a 
position  that  the  moment  he  (Strahl)  swung  forward  to  the 
attack,  he  would  be  exposed  to  a  fire  both  on  the  flank  and  in 
the  rear.    On  hearing  this.  Brown  went  to  Strahl,  who  pointed 


216  A  CRUEL  IMPUTATION. 

out  to  him  the  position  of  the  Federal  line,  and  seeing  it,  sent 
two  staff  oflGlcers  to  report  the  situation  to  Cheatham,  who,  not 
hearing  the  guns,  had  said  to  his  staff,  *  Let  us  go  and  see  what 
is  the  matter !  *  On  the  way  to  Brown,  he  met  the  officer  who 
was  coming  to  report  the  situation  on  the  right,  and  hearing  it, 
said  '  Go  with  me,  and  report  to  Gen.  Hood  just  what  you  have 
said  to  me,'  which  being  done.  Gen.  Hood  replied  to  Cheatham, 
*  If  that  is  the  case,  do  not  attack,  but  order  your  troops  to  hold 
the  position  they  are  in  for  the  night.'  "  [This  explanation  will 
be  clearly  understood  by  reference  to  the  map.] 

Such,  according  to  Major  Vaulx,  is  the  true  explanation 
of  the  reason  why  General  Cheatham  did  not  attack  Stan- 
ley at  Spring  Hill.  It  was  from  no  lack  of  courage,  but 
because  of  the  darkness  coming  on,  and  the  bold  front 
of  the  enemy.  Another  account  indicates  that,  with  aU 
the  rage  that  Hood  showed  afterward  at  his  lost  opportu- 
nity, he  had  himself  an  access  of  irresolution.  Gen.  Bate 
reports  that  on  that  night  he  had  occasion  to  go  to  the 
headquarters,  which  were  about  two  miles  back  from  the 
road,  and  there  found  Hood  in  consultation  with  General 
Forrest,  at  the  conclusion  of  which  he  turned  to  Bate  and 
said  that  no  movement  would  be  undertaken  that  night : 
for  that  Forrest  had  just  reported  to  him  that  he  could 
easily  seize  and  hold  the  pike  at  a  point  above  Spring  Hill, 
which  would  prevent  the  passage  of  Schofield,  so  that  in 
the  morning  "  they  would  bag  the  whole  Federal  army  " ! 

While  thus  vindicating  the  good  name  of  his  old 
friend,  the  Major  takes  occasion  to  stamp  out  another 
cruel  story  which  has  been  permitted  to  float  about  in 
different  quarters.  As  if  the  imputation  of  unmilitary 
conduct  in  disobedience  of  orders,  were  not  enough,  the 
charge  is  made  stiU  more  odious  by  the  explanation  given 
of  this  culpable  neglect,  viz  :  that  General  Cheatham  was 
grossly  intoxicated !  This  I  myself  have  heard  stated,  not 
as  a  mere  rumor,  an  idle  report,  but  as  something  which 


MARCH  Ta  SPXl^<i  &ILL/ 


217 


FROM   COLUMBIA  TO  SPRING   HILL. 


218  CHEAtUAM.  YI^NDICATED. 

"everybody  knew"  in  the  army.      To  this  Major  Vaulx 
gives  a  peremptory  denial.     He  says  : 

"  I  was  with  Gen.  Cheatham  when  he  was  giving  his  orders 
to  Gen.  Brown.  The  charge  that  he  was  intoxicated  is  false.  I 
never  saw  him  more  self-possessed  than  on  that  afternoon.  He 
gave  his  orders  in  a  very  plain  and  explicit  manner.  His  words 
expressed  just  what  he  wanted,  and  in  such  a  manner  that  no 
doubtful  construction  could  be  given  them." 

To  the  same  effect,  ex-Governor  Porter  of  Tennessee  writes : 
'•  I  was  with  Cheatham  during  the  entire  day  from  Columbia 
to  Spring  Hill,  and  he  was  not  only  not  intoxicated,  but  I  am 
positive  that  he  did  not  taste  nor  see  a  drop  of  liquor  of  any 
kind." 

The  injustice  of  a  Commander-in-Chief  throwing  upon 
a  subordinate  a  responsibility  which  he  should  take  upon 
himself,  is  answered  by  the  Major  with  this  telling  remark  : 

** General  Hood  was  himself  on  the  field,  but  a  few  hundred 
yards  from  Cheatham's  line,  and  if  he  felt  that  his  orders  were 
not  being  obeyed,  he  could  have  ridden  to  the  front  in  five 
minutes,  and  in  person  ordered  the  charge  which  he  blames 
Cheatham  for  not  making." 

[The  whole  subject  is  very  fully  treated  in  a  paper  read  before 
the  Southern  Historical  Society  at  Louisville  by  Major  D,  W. 
Saunders,  who  served  upon  the  staffs  of  Generals  Pegram  and 
Walthall.    Its  vindication  of  Gen.  Cheatham  is  complete.] 

Major  Vaulx  adds  these  further  particulars  : 

"Gen.  Edward  R.  Johnson's  Division  was  detached  from 
Stephen  D.  Lee's  Corps,  then  at  Columbia,  and  arrived  in  front 
of  Spring  Hill  after  dark.  Gen.  Johnson  was  ordered  by  Hood 
to  report  to  Cheatham,  and  Hood  ordered  Cheatham  to  have 
Johnson  placed  in  position  to  command  the  turnpike  road  run- 
ning from  Columbia  to  Spring  Hill.  Gen.  Cheatham  sent  his 
Staff  Officer,  Major  Joseph  Bostick,  to  order  Gen.  Johnson  to 
take  such  a  position  (Johnson  had  gone  into  bivouac).  Upon 
getting  this  order,  Johnson  vehemently  objected  to  undertaking 
this  movement  in  the  dark ;  said  he  could  not  do  it,  as  he  had  no 
idea  of  the  country,  or  the  position  of  the  other  troops ;  that  he 
had  reached  the  ground  after  dark,  and  knew  nothing  about 
directions;  and  if  he  went  to  moving  about  in  the  dark,  he 


HOOD  IN  A  RAGE.  219 

would  be  liable  to  run  into  some  of  our  own  troops,  and  they 
would  fire  into  each  other.  Major  Bostick  suggested  that  he 
could  show  Gen.  Johnson  where  the  turnpike  was,  and  point  out 
where  our  lines  were  posted ;  but  Johnson  said  he  could  not, 
and  was  not  willing  to  undertake  such  a  movement  in  the  dark, 
ignorant  as  hd  was  of  the  country  and  all  surroundings.  It  was 
then  suggested  by  Major  Bostick  that  he  had  no  decision  in  the 
matter,  but  that  Gen.  Johnson  might  give  orders  to  his  command 
to  prepare  to  move,  and  then  go  himself  to  Gen.  Cheatham,  and 
lay  the  case  before  him,  which  he  did,  and  impressed  it  upon 
Gen.  Cheatham  that  he  could  not  undertake  the  move  intelli- 
gently or  safely." 

But  the  next  morning,  when  Hood  found  that  the  great 
opportunity  had  been  lost,  he  was  unwilling  to  bear  the 
reproach  of  its  being  due  to  any  want  of  energy  on  his 
own  part.  Major  Vaulx  told  me  of  a  conversation  which 
he  had  with  General  Brown  as  they  were  riding  side  by 
side,  in  which  the  latter  said  : 

*•  General  Hood  is  mad  about  the  enemy  getting  away  last 
night,  and  he  is  going  to  charge  the  blame  of  it  on  somebody. 
He  is  as  wrathy  as  a  rattlesnake  this  morning,  striking  at  every- 
thing. As  he  passed  along  to  the  front  a  while  ago,  he  rode  up 
to  me  and  said :  '  Gen.  Brown,  in  the  movement  to-day  I  wish 
you  to  bear  in  mind  this  military  principle  :  That  when  a  pursu- 
ing army  comes  up  with  a  retreating  enemy,  he  must  be  immedi- 
ately attacked.  If  you  have  a  brigade  in  front  as  advance  guard, 
order  its  commander  to  attack  the  enemy  as  soon  as  he  comes 
up  with  him ;  if  you  have  a  regiment  in  advance,  and  it  comes 
up  with  the  enemy,  give  the  colonel  orders  to  attack  him;  if 
there  is  but  a  company  in  advance,  and  it  overtakes  the  entire 
Yankee  army,  order  the  captain  to  attack  it  forthwith ;  and  if 
anything  blocks  the  road  in  front  of  you  to-day,  don't  stop  a 
minute,  but  turn  out  into  the  fields  or  woods,  and  move  on  to 
the  front '." 

Aside  from  this  Confederate  testimony,  it  argues  a  cer- 
tain simpUcity  in  the  commander  of  an  army  to  assume 
that,  while  he  is  wide  awake  and  urging  on  his  soldiers, 
the  opposing  commander  is  not  equally  vigilant  and  equally 


220        PERFECT  CONCERT  IN  THE  FEDERAL  ARMY. 

determined.  The  whole  argument  of  Hood  seems  to  imply 
that  the  Union  commander  was  quite  unprepared,  whereas 
General  Schofield  had  had  his  eyes  open  all  the  time  to 
the  possibility  of  such  a  flank  movement,  and  as  soon 
as  the  cavalry  reported  that  the  enemy  were  crossing  the 
river,  he  at  once  despatched  General  Stanley  with  a  divis- 
ion comprising  three  brigades  and  all  the  reserve  artillery 
of  the  Fourth  Corps  to  Spring  Hill,  with  orders  to  throw 
up  intrenchments  and  hold  the  position. 

As  these  bickerings  between  Gen.  Hood  and  his  corps 
and  division  commanders  contributed  so  much  to  defeat 
the  Confederate  army,  they  suggest  by  contrast  the  opposite 
state  of  things  in  the  Federal  camp,  where  General  Scho- 
field was  supported  by  Generals  Stanley  and  Cox,  on  whom 
he  relied  with  the  absolute  confidence  that  one  brave  man 
gives  to  another.  The  situation  was  critical.  The  Union 
army  was  threatened  on  two  sides :  by  the  flanking  move- 
ment directed  towards  Spring  Hill,  and  at  the  same  time 
by  the  persistent  attempt  to  force  a  passage  of  the  river 
at  Columbia,  where  the  attack  was  kept  up  without  inter- 
mission. Had  Schofield  withdrawn  his  whole  force,  the 
Confederates  would  have  immediately  crossed  with  all 
their  heavy  artillery,  which  could  have  been  transported 
rapidly  over  the  hard,  macadamized  turnpike.  Against 
both  these  movements,  aimed  at  points  ten  miles  apart, 
he  had  to  be  equally  prepared.  As  has  been  well  said, 
"He  must  hold  back  his  enemy  at  Columbia  with  one 
hand,  and  fend  off  the  blow  at  Spring  HiU  with  the  other." 
So  while  Stanley  marched  with  all  speed  to  Spring  Hill, 
Cox  was  ordered  to  hold  on  to  the  last  moment  at  Colum- 
bia, to  prevent  the  enemy  crossing  the  river.  It  was  to 
the  admirable  manner  in  which  both  these  orders  were 
carried  out,  that  was  due  the  success  of  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing day. 


CALCULATING  THE  CHANCES.  221 

To  return  to  General  Schofield  :  having  anticipated  the 
flank  movement  of  the  enemy,  he  calculated  the  chances. 
This  he  did,  reasoning  from  his  personal  knowledge  of  the 
General  pitted  against  him.  He  and  Hood  had  been  class- 
mates at  West  Point,  and  he  knew  that,  while  a  braver 
man  never  lived,  his  mind  was  not  exact.  At  West  Point 
he  had  no  standing  in  mathematics  ;  he  did  not  calculate 
distances  nor  impediments  ;  and  he  had  no  idea  of  the  value 
of  time.  This  he  proved  to-day  :  for  while  he  and  Stanley 
were  aiming  for  the  same  point,  and  he  had  the  start, 
Stanley  got  there  before  him.  True,  the  latter  had  the 
advantage  of  a  smooth,  hard  turnpike,  while  the  former 
had  to  move  by  a  country  road,  in  which  his  artillery  and 
baggage  waggons  would  sink  deep  at  every  step.  I  say 
toouldy  for  in  fact  the  baggage  trains  had  been  left  behind 
at  the  river,  and  the  artillery  also,  except  a  few  light  guns. 
Thus  the  army  was  stripped  for  a  forced  march.  Can  any 
one  doubt  that,  if  Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  in  com- 
mand, even  though  his  men  might  have  been  barefoot, 
ragged,  and  sore,  he  would  have  carried  them,  dead  or 
alive,  to  the  point  where  the  fate  of  the  contest  was  to 
be  decided  ?  But  Hood,  as  he  tells  the  story  himself,  did 
not  come  in  sight  of  the  turnpike  tiU  three  o'clock,  when 
he  was  still  two  miles  away,  and  then  only  to  see  *'  the 
enemy's  waggons  and  men  "  streaming  along  the  road  of 
which  he  had  been  so  eager  to  get  possession !  General  J. 
D.  Cox  in  his  History  *  states  that  the  division  of  Stanley 

*  This  little  volume,  one  of  a  series  published  by  the  Scrib- 
ners,  entitled  "Campaigns  of  the  Civil  Wak,"  is  the  clearest 
account  I  have  found  anywhere  of  the  battle  of  Franklin,  and  of 
the  campaign  of  which  it  was  a  part.  General  Cox  is  one  of  the 
men  who  rank  high  both  in  military  and  in  civil  life.  Since  the 
war  he  has  been  Governor  of  Ohio  and  a  Member  of  the  Cabinet. 
His  book  is  written  not  at  all  in  the  style  of  a  partisan,  but  in 


222  STANLEY  AT  SPRING  HILL. 

reached  Spring  Hill  at  noon,  just  in  time  to  prevent  its 
being  seized  by  a  party  of  cavalry.  Thus  lie  was  fully 
three  hours  in  advance  of  Hood.  Those  three  hours  saved 
the  Union  army.  In  that  time  the  division  had  tlirown  up 
earthworks  around  the  little  town,  and  was  preparing  for 
an  attack.  If  Hood  was  two  miles  away  at  three  o'clock, 
soldiers  can  make  the  calculation  how  long  it  would  take 
to  move  a  large  body  of  troops  over  that  distance,  and  get 
it  into  line  of  battle.  Still  it  is  true  that  the  head  of 
the  army  approached  the  turnpike  before  sunset,  within 
gunshot  of  the  Federal  troops,  and  opened  fire,  which  was 
so  vigorously  returned  that  they  found,  to  their  surprise, 
that  they  were  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy  that  was  well 
prepared  for  their  reception. 

The  truth  is  that,  although  Hood  tried  afterwards  to 
belittle  the  force  in  possession  of  Spring  Hill,  in  order  to 
throw  the  blame  of  his  failure  upon  Cheatham,  that  vital 
point  was  held  too  firmly  to  be  shaken.  Stanley  was  a 
dangerous  man  to  attack  at  any  time,  especially  at  the 
head  of  five  thousand  of  those  Western  troops  that  had 
fought  so  splendidly  in  the  Atlanta  campaign.  To  add  to 
his  strength,  all  the  reserve  artillery  of  the  Fourth  Corps 
had  been  sent  forward  in  advance,  which  enabled  him  to 
put  thirty  pieces  in  position :  so  that  when  Cleburne,  the 
most  dashing  division  commander  in  the  Southern  army, 
who  led  the  advance,  moving  forward  in  obedience  to 
Hood's  orders,  began  the  attack,  he  was  received  with 
such  a  tremendous  shock  that,  brave  as  he  was,  he  drew 
off  and  sent  back  for  reinforcements ;  but  before  they  could 
come  up  and  be  put  in  line  of  battle,  night  fell  and  pre- 

the  spirit  of  fairness  and  candor.  As  he  took  part  in  all  the 
movements  preceding  the  battle,  and  was  in  command  on  the 
line  that  bore  the  brunt  of  the  battle,  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tioning facts  that  passed  under  hi-s  personal  observation. 


IN  SIGHT  OF  THE  CAMP-FIRES.  223 

vented  further  operations.  Thus  it  was  that  a  large  part  of 
the  Confederate  army  was  camped  within  sight  of  the  road 
along  which  the  Union  army  was  moving.  Schofield  found 
them  there  when  he  came  up,  and  just  after  dark  he  walked 
to  a  slight  ridge  in  front  of  his  lines,  and  looked  straight 
into  their  camp-fires.  They  could  have  thrown  themselves 
upon  his  line  of  march,  but  it  would  have  been  a  fight  in 
the  dark,  with  a  result  by  no  means  so  certain  as  they 
seemed  to  suppose.* 

As  night  came  on,  the  troops  under  Cox  were  ordered 
to  withdraw  from  before  Columbia  in  detachments,  leaving 

*If  further  light  be  needed  on  the  disputed  questions  in  regard  to 
the  incidents  of  the  day  before  the  battle  of  Franklin,  it  may  be  found 
in  a  very  full  and  detailed  narrative  by  Thomas  Speed,  Esq.,  of 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  who,  as  Adjutant  of  a  Kentucky  regiment  in 
the  Twenty-third  Corps,  took  part  in  the  battle,  and  who  gives  us, 
not  only  his  personal  observations,  but  the  result  of  a  careful  study 
of  the  Confederate  reports,  all  of  which  lead  him  to  the  conclusion 
that  Hood  found  that  to  make  that  night  attack,  of  which  he  after- 
wards talked  as  so  easy  to  be  made,  would  have  been  a  pretty  seri- 
ous business.  The  paper  was  prepared  to  be  read  before  the  Ohio 
Commandery  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  and  is  published  in  their  Histori- 
cal Transactions. 

In  a  private  letter  Mr.  Speed  gives  the  testimony  of  an  officer 
who  was  at  Spring  Hill,  as  to  the  preparations  that  had  been  made 
for  an  attack.  He  says :  "A  few  years  since  General  Cheatham  came 
to  Louisville  to  address  his  old  companions-in-arms  on  this  very 
campaign  (an  address  that  was  listened  to  with  equal  interest  by 
those  who  fought  on  both  sides),  in  which  he  explained  why  he  could 
not  reach  the  turnpike  that  memorable  night.  On  the  platform  sat 
General  Walter  Whittaker,  a  gallant  Kentuckian,  who  commanded  a 
brigade  under  General  Stanley.  As  we  left  the  hall,  he  came  up  to 
me  and  said  in  his  characteristic  way :  '  Yes,  the  reason  he  didn't  get 
thar  was  because  he  couldn't.  I  was  thar  myself— I  was  thar  with 
seven  regiments ' .' "    The  explanation  appears  to  be  quite  sufficient. 


224  IN  A  VERY  TIGHT  PLACE. 

till  the  very  last  a  force  sufficient  to  prevent  the  enemy 
crossing.  The  rear-guard  did  not  leave  till  after  mid- 
night. There  was  no  moon,  but  the  stars  were  shining 
brightly ;  and  the  old  soldiers,  elated  to  be  once  more  in 
motion,  swung  along  the  road  rapidly.  Three  hours  of 
this  steady  march  brought  them  near  Spring  Hill,  and  as 
they  caught  sight  of  camp-fires  in  the  distance,  they  began 
to  cheer  at  the  prospect  of  hot  coffee  and  a  night's  rest. 
But  the  cheer  had  hardly  been  heard  before  it  was  silenc- 
ed :  as  an  officer  at  the  head  of  the  column  put  his  finger 
to  his  lips,  and  whispered  "  Hist !  " — a  warning  that  passed 
quickly  along  the  line,  and  hushed  every  voice  :  for  those 
camp-fires  were  not  surrounded  by  the  boys  in  blue,  but 
by  those  who,  at  the  least  alarm,  would  have  seized  the 
guns  that  were  stacked  at  the  edge  of  the  woods,  and  fired 
into  the  crowded  column  that  was  moving  along  the  high- 
way :  though,  if  the  attack  had  been  made,  it  would  not 
have  found  the  column  unprepared :  for  even  while  on 
the  march,  it  was  kept  ready  for  battle.  "  The  divisions 
were  all  moving  by  the  left  flank,  so  that  when  they  should 
halt  and  face,  they  would  be  in  line  of  battle,  and  could 
use  the  road  fences  for  barricades,  if  attacked.  By  this 
arrangement  there  was  the  least  risk  of  confusion,  and 
the  greatest  readiness  for  any  contingency  which  might 
arise."  But  while  the  position  had  these  advantages,  the 
General  could  but  feel  that  it  was  one  of  great  exposure 
and  of  great  danger.  He  never  passed  a  night  of  greater 
anxiety.  When  it  was  aU  over,  he  telegraphed  to  Thomas: 
"I  don't  want  to  get  into  so  tight  a  place  again." 

But  just  now  he  was  in  "the  tight  place,"  and  it  re- 
quired the  utmost  promptness  and  skill  to  get  out  of  it. 
The  decision  with  which  he  acted  showed  that  he  had 
the  resources  of  a  soldier  fitted  for  high  command.  He 
seemed  to  be  present  at  every  exposed  point.     Cox  says. 


A  COMMANDER  WITHOUT  ORDERS.  225 

"On  hearing  from  Stanley  that  he  was  attacked  by 
infantry,  Schofield  hastened  to  Ruger's  division,  which 
was  nearest  to  Spring  Hill,  and  led  its  two  brigades  in 
person  by  a  rapid  march  to  Stanley's  support."  Again, 
"  Learning  that  some  force  of  the  enemy  was  at  Thomp- 
son's Station  [three  miles  beyond],  he  immediately  march- 
ed with  a  division  to  that  point,  to  open  the  way  to 
FranMin."    He  returned  to  Spring  Hill  at  "midnight. 

To  add  to  his  perplexities,  he  was  without  orders,  and 
wholly  ignorant  of  what  the  rest  of  the  Federal  army 
might  be  doing.  It  had  been  understood  that  as  soon  as 
General  A.  J.  Smith,  with  his  corps  from  Missouri,  arrived 
in  Nashville,  he  should  push  southward  to  Schofield's  sup- 
port. But  whether  this  movement  had  been  executed,  the 
latter  did  not  know,  for  he  had  received  no  recent  com 
munication  from  Gen.  Thomas.  Surrounded  as  they  were 
by  enemies,  of  course  they  could  not  telegraph  to  each 
other  except  by  cipher — a  cipher  which  they  themselves 
did  not  understand  :  for  Mr.  Stanton  (knowing  how  often 
important  secrets  leak  out  through  the  treachery  of  some 
one  who  may  be  a  trusted  agent,  and  in  the  very  tent  of 
a  commanding  officer)  had,  with  an  excess  of  caution, 
issued  an  order  that  the  cipher  should  be  known  only  to 
certain  telegraph  operators  sent  from  the  War  Office  in 
Washington  ;  so  that  in  one  case  Schofield  received  a 
message  which  no  one  in  camp  could  interpret,  and 
remained  ignorant  of  its  contents  for  forty-eight  hours! 
So  he  heard  nothing  from  Thomas,  and  knew  nothing  of 
the  movements  of  Smith.  But  in  the  evening  a  train  had 
come  in,  the  conductor  of  which  said  that  as  he  passed 
Franklin,  he  thought  he  saw  troops  there  ;  but  as  it  was 
after  dark  when  he  came  through,  he  could  not  be  posi- 
tive. At  once  an  officer  was  despatched  with  all  speed  to 
Franklin,  to  bring  positive  information ;  and  if  he  found 


226  THE  NIGHT  MARCH. 

General  Smith,  to  order  him  (for  he  would  have  been 
under  Schofield's  command)  to  push  on  instantly  to  join 
him  for  the  battle  that  must  be  fought  at  daybreak.  But 
ruturning  to  the  conductor,  and  questioning  him  more 
closely,  the  General  felt  that  his  information  was  too 
uncertain  for  him  to  rely  upon,  and  at  midnight  he  gave 
orders  for  the  whole  army  to  push  on  to  Franklin. 

In  this  forward  movement  the  troops  which  had  just 
come  from  Columbia  led  the  way,  the  two  wings  of  the 
army  reversing  their  positions  :  Stanley,  who  had  marched 
to  Spring  Hill  in  the  morning,  remaining  where  he  stood  ; 
while  the  Twenty-third  Corps,  that  had  been  keeping  back 
the  enemy  at  the  river,  as  it  now  came  up  the  road,  filed 
behind  the  Fourth  Corps,  and  passed  to  the  front.  Gen. 
Stanley,  who  had  had  the  honor  of  leading  the  advance, 
now  had  the  honor  of  guarding  the  rear — a  position  which 
might  bring  upon  him  the  whole  of  Hood's  army,  but 
which  he  held  tiU  all  of  the  Twenty-third  Corps  had  passed, 
when  silently  regiment  after  regiment  formed  in  column, 
and  followed. 

That  night  march  will  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who 
were  in  it,  or  those  who  saw  it ;  for  it  was  in  full  view  of 
the  camp-fires  of  the  enemy.  If  the  army  had  marched  in 
single  column,  vdth  its  baggage  trains,  it  would  have  ex- 
tended fourteen  miles!  This  was  shortened  one-half  by 
doubling  up,  for  which  there  was  room  on  the  turnpike,  so 
that  the  baggage  train  was  kept  in  motion,  with  a  column 
of  troojDS  marching  at  its  side,  ready  for  attack.  The 
cavalry  under  Forrest  were  hovering  along  the  line,  trying 
to  strike  a  blow.  Cox  says,  "  Forrest's  troopers  made  an 
occasional  dash  at  the  long  waggon  train,  but  only  in  one 
or  two  instances  did  they  succeed  in  reaching  it";  and  yet 
Hood  says  (as  if  he  wished  to  emphasize  the  difference 
between  this    dashing    cavalry    officer    and    Cheatham), 


ARRIVAL  IN  FRANKLIN.  221 

"Forrest  gallantly  opposed  the  enemy  to  the  full  extent 
of  his  power."  If  so,  it  is  a  wonder  that  he  did  not 
accomplish  more.  Perhaps  the  explanation  is  that,  as  an 
old  officer  once  told  me,  "cavalry  do  not  like  to  attack 
infantry  in  the  dark.  The  long  roll  of  musketry  empties 
the  saddles  and  the  horses  rush  about  in  confusion."  And 
so  it  is  not  surprising  that,  in  spite  of  such  "dashes"  here 
and  there,  the  column  continued  its  march.  The  night 
seemed  very  long,  but  the  tramp  never  ceased  till  the 
troops  halted  in  the  outskirts  of  Franklin.  The  advance 
arrived  before  daybreak,  and  the  officers  who  led  the  way 
rode  up  to  the  Carter  House  (the  first  that  they  came  to), 
and  woke  up  the  old  man,  the  father  of  the  Colonel,  who 
showed  us  over  the  battlefield  (who  had  been  in  the 
Confederate  army,  and  was  then  at  home  on  parole),  and 
politely  informed  him  that  they  would  take  possession  of  his 
house  as  their  headquarters,  to  which,  knowing  the  usages 
of  war,  he  did  not  object.  One  who  was  in  that  group 
says :  "  While  sitting  out  in  front  of  the  house,  waiting 
for  the  head  of  the  column  to  arrive,  everything  was  as  still 
as  the  grave,  and  there  was  time  to  ponder  on  what  the 
day  would  bring  forth.  Few  anticipated  the  dreadful  and 
bloody  outcome,  but  rather  looked  for  another  flank  move- 
ment, as  at  Columbia.  Presently  the  tramp  of  horses  in 
the  distance,  and  the  rattle  of  tin  cups  against  bayonets, 
told  us  that  the  troops  were  coming."  *    As  they  came  up, 

♦For  this  and  many  touches  which  give  vividness  to  the  picture, 
I  am  indebted  to  a  most  spirited  account  of  the  battle,  and  of  the 
campaign  of  which  it  was  a  part,  entitled  "  The  Retreat  from  Pulaski 
to  Nashville,"  a  paper  read  before  the  Ohio  Commandery  of  the  Mili- 
tary Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  the  United  States,  December  1st, 
1886,  by  Companion  Levi  T.  Scofield,  late  Captain  U.  S.  Volunteers. 
(Published  by  H.  C.  Sherick  &  Co.,  Cincinnati.)  It  is  written  in  the 
style  of  a  soldier,  with  all  the  fire  of  one  who  describes  scenes  in 


228  A  CRITICAL  SITUATION. 

they  were  turned  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  road,  that  the 
trains  might  pass  through  into  the  town.  General  Scho- 
field  at  once  pressed  on  to  the  river,  where  he  had  hoped 
to  find  the  bridges  standing,  and  pontoons,  for  which  he 
had  sent  urgent  messages  to  Thomas,  ready  to  lay  others, 
to  pass  over  the  artillery  and  baggage  waggons.  Instead 
of  this,  he  found  that  the  bridge  connecting  with  the 
turnpike  had  been  swept  away,  and  that  there  was  not  a 
single  pontoon  with  which  to  construct  another.  All  that 
remained  was  the  railroad  bridge,  which  had  to  be  planked 
to  make  it  passable  for  waggons,  and  even  then  furnished 
but  a  slender  resource  for  the  passage  of  an  army.  Find- 
ing this  condition,  he  returned  to  the  front  in  a  state  of 
great  anxiety.  Thorough  soldier  as  he  was,  he  took  the 
chances  of  war  as  they  came,  but  for  once  he  was  taken 
aback  at  the  unexpected  position  in  which  he  was  placed. 
"I  never  saw  him,"  said  General  Cox,  "  so  disturbed," 
as  he  now  contemplated  the  probability,  which  a  soldier 
dreads,  of  having  to  fight  a  battle  with  his  back  to  a  river, 
when  a  disaster  is  likely  to  prove  fatal.  [The  orders  of 
Hood  were  to  "  drive  them  into  the  river  " !]  But  it  was  no 
time  for  idle  regrets.  Gen.  Cox  was  placed  in  command 
of  the  two  divisions  of  the  Twenty-third  Corps,  his  own  and 
Gen.  Ruger's,  and  ordered  to  entrench  strongly  on  a  line 
running  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  turnpike.  This  was 
a  new  task  for  the  soldiers,  weary  as  they  were  with  their 
all  night's  march,  covering  a  distance  of  twenty-three  miles. 
They  were  almost  dead  with  fatigue,  but  not  a  moment 
was  to  be  lost.  As  soon  as  they  had  snatched  a  hasty 
breakfast,  they  were  set  to  work  with  spades  and  shovels, 

which  he  was  an  actor ;  and  yet,  we  are  informed  on  the  best  author- 
ity, that  it  is  as  accurate  in  its  details  as  it  is  picturesque.  It  is  these 
old  soldiers  who  tell  what  they  have  seen,  who  furnish  the  most 
authentic  materials  of  history. 


DISPOSITION  OF  THE  TROOPS.  229 

and  in  two  or  three  hours  had  dug  a  ditch  a  mile  and 
a  half  in  length,  throwing  up  the  earth  on  the  inside  to 
make  a  breastwork  (to  which  some  added  a  log  on  the 
crest,  raised  three  inches  to  leave  space  for  their  rifles), 
along  which  at  intervals  there  were  openings  for  the  bat- 
teries ;  all  which  being  done,  they  threw  themselves  upon 
the  ground  for  a  sleep  which  to  many  of  them  was  to  be 
their  last. 

General  Schofield  too  was  glad  of  a  short  interval  of 
rest.  For  several  days  and  nights  he  had  had  little  sleep, 
except  such  as  he  got  in  the  saddle.  On  the  march  he 
could  clasp  his  hands  round  the  pommel,  and  for  a  few 
minutes  relapse  into  a  state  of  forgetfulness,  which,  if  not 
so  refreshing  as  rest  in  a  quiet  bed  or  by  the  camp-fire,  at 
least  kept  him  from  the  point  of  utter  exhaustion.  So 
when  the  position  had  been  made  secure,  he  went  to  the 
house  of  a  good  Union  woman  (it  was  pointed  out  to  us  as 
we  rode  through  the  street),  and  threw  himself  on  a  bed 
and  fell  asleep,  and  rested  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  tiU  he 
was  awakened  for  orders. 

All  the  forenoon  the  troops  came  pouring  in,  the  last 
to  arrive  being  those  that  had  remained  at  Spring  HiU. 
The  Confederate  army  was  but  a  few  miles  behind,  some- 
times approaching  nearer,  when  the  Federal  rear-guard 
turned  at  bay,  and  showed  such  a  grim  front,  with  its 
batteries  ranged  so  as  to  sweep  the  road,  that  its  pursuers 
kept  at  a  respectful  distance.  It  was  not  till  a  few  hours 
later  that  they  were  to  come  to  close  quarters.  As  the 
different  divisions  reached  Franklin,  there  was  another 
reversal  of  positions  ;  for  as  those  that  arrived  in  the 
morning  were  now  entrenched,  they  remained  in  their 
works ;  while  the  Fourth  Corps  under  Gen.  Stanley,  which 
consisted  of  three  divisions,  was  thus  distributed  :  that  of 
Kimball  was  placed  at  the  extreme  right  of  the  line  ;  that 


230  HOOD  DECIDES  TO  ATTACK. 

of  Wagner  was  cut  in  two  (two  brigades  being  stationed 
outside  of  the  works  where  they  met  a  hard  fate  ;  while  a 
third  brigade,  under  Colonel  Opdycke,  was  brought  within 
the  lines,  and  placed  in  the  rear  as  a  reserve  ;  and,  as  we 
shall  see,  made  one  of  the  most  brilliant  charges  of  the 
day) ;  while  Wood's  division  marched  through  the  town,  and 
took  its  place  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  Stanley 
joined  Schofield,  and  remained  with  him  till  the  afternoon, 
as  both  fully  expected  that  the  attack  of  Hood's  army 
would  be  aimed  in  that  quarter  rather  than  in  front.  The 
disposition  of  the  troops  is  indicated  on  the  map  of  Frank- 
lin, that  I  have  copied  from  General  Cox's  History.  From 
this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  position  of  the  town  is  well 
fitted  for  defence,  as  it  is  surrounded  on  three  sides  by 
a  river,  and  is  open  only  on  one.  Across  this  open  front, 
swelling  out  into  a  projecting  curve,  was  drawn  the  line  of 
entrenchments,  to  one  end  of  which,  near  the  railway,  we 
had  first  driven  to  get  a  general  view  of  the  field. 

From  that  point  we  had  pushed  on  two  and  a  half  miles 
out  of  town  over  the  Columbia  turnpike,  till  we  came  to 
where  the  road  passes  over  high  ground  between  two  hills. 
Here,  leaving  our  horses  in  charge  of  our  black  rider,  we 
ascended  a  hill  on  which  were  a  few  scattered  trees,  on  the 
brow  of  which  stood  an  old  linden,  tall  and  gaunt,  with  its 
naked  arms  lifted  against  the  sky.  "Here,"  said  Mr.  Cun- 
ningham, "  on  the  day  of  the  battle,  I  saw  General  Hood 
ride  forward  alone  on  his  horse,  and  halting  near  this 
tree,  take  out  his  field-glass,  and  gaze  long  and  earnestly 
across  the  plain  at  the  position  of  the  enemy.  All  who 
were  in  sight  of  him  watched  him  with  eager  eyes,  for 
on  the  decision  of  that  moment  depended  the  fate  of  thou- 
sands. Presently  he  turned  back  to  General  Stewart,  to 
whom  I  heard  him  say,  '  We  will  make  the  fight ! '  and 
who  received  his  extended  hand  with  a  sadness,  which 


FORMING  IN  LINE  OF  BATTLE.  231 

seemed  to  say,  *  We  may  not  meet  again ! '  The  die  was 
cast.  The  order  was  instantly  given  to  the  troops,  who, 
as  they  came  over  the  hiU,  deployed,  stretching  out  to  the 
right  and  left,  and  forming  iij  line  of  battle.  On  the 
opposite  hill  a  military  band  had  taken  its  position,  and 
played  some  stirring  Southern  airs  as  the  brave  men 
marched  down  into  the  valley,  which  was  to  be  to  thou- 
sands of  them  the  vaUey  of  death.  The  whole  scene  was 
the  most  thrilling  that  I  ever  saw  in  war." 

It  was  now  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  and  it  took  an 
hour  for  the  army  to  defile  into  position.  This  hour,  as 
may  be  supposed,  was  one  of  intense,  though  suppressed, 
excitement.  We  hear  much  of  the  noise  of  battle,  but  the 
stiUness  which  precedes  it  is  not  less  awful,  as  column  after 
column,  with  measured  step,  takes  its  place  in  the  ranks  of 
death.  It  is  the  stillness  which  precedes  the  tempest,  as 
thunder  clouds  gather  darkly  but  silently.  It  is  not  till 
they  touch  each  other  that  the  storm  bursts. 

As  the  Confederate  lines  thus  formed  in  front,  General 
Hood  rode  forward  to  a  hill,  from  which  he  could  have  a 
neai'er  view,  so  as  to  watch  every  movement,  and  be  in 
position  at  once  to  receive  reports  and  to  give  orders; 
while  across  the  plain,  on  another  hill  overlooking  the  same 
scene,  stood  General  Schofield,  giving  quick  glances  along 
his  own  lines,  and  away  to  the  dark  masses  of  men  that 
were  forming  in  mighty  battalions  for  the  death  struggle. 

It  was  now  four  o'clock,  and  as  it  was  the  last  day  of 
autumn,  and  therefore  one  of  the  shortest  days  of  the 
year,  the  sun  was  sinking  in  the  west ;  but  as  the  light 
struck  across  the  plain,  it  shone  on  one  of  the  most  daz- 
zling sights  in  the  world — a  great  army  drawn  up  in 
"Battle's  magnificently  stern  array." 

These  preparations  were  not  unobserved.  As  it  was  an 
open  plain  between  the  two  armies,  every  movement  of  the 


232  A  GREAT  DISASTER. 

enemy  was  distinctly  seen.  Going  to  a  projecting  angle  of 
the  works,  General  Cox  mounted  the  parapet,  and  with  his 
field-glass  took  a  long  look  at  the  large  bodies  of  troops 
that  were  being  massed  at  the  foot  of  the  hills  ;  then 
mounting  his  horse,  he  rode  to  every  point  of  the  line,  to 
see  that  all  was  ready  tor  the  attack.  He  had  not  long  to 
wait,  for  already  the  troops  were  in  motion.  The  day  was 
nearly  done,  but  enough  remained  to  gain  an  immortal  vic- 
tory, and  at  that  moment  the  dropping  of  a  flag  by  General 
Cheatham  gave  the  signal  for  the  whole  line  to  advance. 

The  battle  began  on  the  extreme  left  with  a  premature 
attack,  which  failed  from  its  very  precipitation.  Gen.  Bate 
(afterwards  Governor  of  Tennessee,  and  now  Senator)  was 
a  dashing  soldier,  and,  being  eager  for  the  combat,  pushed 
forward  his  division  only  to  discover,  as  it  came  within  range 
of  the  enemy,  that  it  was  in  advance  of  connecting  lines. 
As  his  men  looked  to  the  right  for  a  support,  they  saw  that 
the  other  divisions  were  far  behind ;  and  as  they  had  to 
take  the  whole  fire,  they  retreated.  Major  Vaulx  was  an 
eye-witness  of  the  attack  and  the  repulse,  and  could  not 
but  regret,  while  he  admired,  the  too  impetuous  valor  of 
his  brothers-in-arms. 

But  the  fortune  of  war  changed  as  the  Confederates 
advanced  in  tremendous  force,  and  it  was  now  the  turn  of 
the  Federals  to  experience  a  great  disaster.  In  arranging 
the  defences,  two  brigades  had  been  placed  outside  of  the 
town,  across  the  turnpike,  not  as  a  position  to  be  held, 
but  simply  to  check  and  delay  the  attack.  They  were  to 
fire  a  few  rounds  of  artillery,  and  then  to  withdraw  within 
the  works  and  take  their  place  in  the  line  of  defence,  or 
to  be  held  as  a  reserve.  But  as  the  approaching  columns 
drew  nearer,  the  officer  in  command,  more  brave  than  wise, 
(who  seems  to  have  thought  it  the  proper  thing  for  a 
soldier  to  fight  the  enemy  anywhere,  and  with  any  odds. 


WHO  WAS  IT  THAT  BLUNDERED  ?  233 

even  unsupported  and  alone,)  ordered  his  infantry  to  open 
fire,  as  if  the  battle  were  to  be  fought  on  that  ground.* 

*  That  it  was  the  commander  of  the  division  who  blundered  at 
this  awful  moment,  is  but  too  evident.  The  author  of  "  The  Re- 
treat from  Pulaski  to  Nashville,"  thus  reports  what  he  himself  saw 
and  heard:  "  The  writer  was  standing  on  the  parapet  of  the  100th 
Ohio  Regiment,  urging  the  men  to  strengthen  their  works,  and  talk- 
ing with  General  Wagner.  The  General  was  reclining  on  his  elbow, 
with  a  staff  or  crutch  in  his  hand :  he  had  fallen  with  his  horse  and 
was  lame.  We  remarked  that  the  musketry  firing  was  becoming 
more  rapid,  also  from  the  two  guns  in  front.  By-and-by  a  staff 
officer  rode  fast  from  one  of  the  brigades,  and  reported  excited- 
ly, '  The  enemy  are  forming  in  heavy  columns.  We  can  see  them 
distinctly  in  the  open  timber  and  all  along  our  front.'  Wagner  said 
firmly  '  Stand  there  and  fight  them,'  and  then  turning  to  me,  said, 
'And  that  stubbed,  curly-headed  Dutchman,'  meaning  one  of  his 
brigade  commanders  [General  Conrad],  '  will  fight  them  too.'  '  But, 
General,'  the  oflftcer  said, '  the  orders  are  not  to  stand,  except  against 
cavalry  and  skirmishers ;  but  to  fall  back  behind  the  main  line  if  a 
general  engagement  is  threatened.'  In  a  short  time  another  officer 
rode  in  from  the  right  in  great  haste,  and  told  him  the  Rebels  were 
advancing  in  heavy  force.  He  received  the  same  order.  The  oflScer 
added, '  But  Hood's  entire  army  is  coming.'  Then  Wagner  struck 
the  ground  with  his  stick,  and  said  '  Never  mind :  fight  them ! '  Soon 
we  heard  the  Rebel  yell  and  heavy  firing." 

It  was  a  dreadful  mistake,  for  which  he  had  to  suffer  in  the  way 
that  a  soldier  feels  most :  for  in  less  than  a  week.  General  Thomas, 
after  careful  investigation,  relieved  him  of  his  command,  and  that 
was  the  end  of  his  military  career.  But  soldiers  are  generous  in 
their  judgments,  and  quick  to  forgive  the  mistakes  of  one  who  has 
been  brave,  and  so  the  writer  of  the  above  adds:  "  Wagner  was  a 
great  fighter.    It  is  said  that  bullets  rattled  out  of  his  clothes  for  a 

month  after  the  battle  of  Stone  River He  is  now  dead ;  his 

soul  is  in  heaven  with  the  heroes ;  and  let  us  draw  over  this  one  error 
the  mantle  of  charity,  and  cherish  the  memory  of  his  personal  valor 
and  dauntless  courage  on  the  hard-fought  battlefields  of  the  West." 


234  WHY  WERE  THESE  BRIGADES  THERE  ? 

The  only  explanation  of  his  thus  acting,  not  only  without 
orders,  but  against  orders,  is  that  he  "lost  his  head" — 
a  very  bad  thing  to  lose  in  a  battle.*     It  were  better  that 

*  This  terrible  disaster  at  the  opening  of  the  battle  has  often 
led  to  the  inquiry,  why  these  brigades  were  placed  in  such  an 
exposed  position  ?  And  gentle  home  critics  think  that  they 
detect  here  a  fault  of  strategy.  A  word  of  explanation,  with 
the  help  of  the  map,  may  relieve  their  minds,  and  show  them 
that  there  was  no  mistake  at  all  in  the  disposition  of  the  Union 
army. 

The  reader  must  bear  in  mind  the  position  of  Gen.  Schofield 
on  that  morning.  He  had  not  planned  for  a  battle  at  Franklin, 
but  had  intended,  in  accordance  with  the  orders  of  Thomas,  to 
continue  his  march  to  Nashville,  as  he  would  have  done  if  he  had 
found  bridges  or  pontoons  to  cross  the  Harpeth  river.  Disap- 
pointed in  this,  he  had  to  change  his  plan,  and  prepare  for  the 
contingency  of  battle  where  he  was.  As  yet  he  was  wholly  in  the 
dark  as  to  the  intentions  of  the  enemy.  Judging  from  the  move- 
ment of  Hood  at  Columbia,  in  crossing  the  river  and  endeavoring 
to  get  in  his  rear,  it  seemed  probable  that  he  would  repeat  the 
same  movement  at  Franklin ;  and  instead  of  attacking  in  front, 
where  the  Twenty-third  corps  held  a  strong  line  of  defence, 
would  cross  the  river,  and  making  a  circuit,  move  round  the  town, 
so  as  to  take  the  Federal  army  in  the  rear,  and  cut  off  its  retreat 
to  Nashville.  In  anticipation  of  such  a  movement,  one  division 
of  the  Fourth  corps,  to  be  followed  by  others,  if  necessary, 
had  been  got  across  the  river  to  the  bluff  on  the  other  side, 
where  General  Schofield,  from  the  earthworks  (designated  on 
the  map  as  Fort  Granger,  the  only  point  of  sufiBcient  elevation 
to  command  a  view  of  the  whole  field),  was  able  to  watch  the 
advance  of  the  enemy,  and  change  his  own  movements  to  meet 
the  attack  from  whichever  quarter  it  might  come. 

It  was  with  an  eye  in  both  directions,  that  the  two  brigades 
had  been  placed  in  front,  to  observe  the  movements  of  the 
enemy ;  and  if  he  should  turn  towards  the  river,  to  swing  round 
with  him,  keeping  in  his  front,  and  fending  off  the  attack  till  the 
interior  lines  could  be  reformed  to  meet  the  tremendous  shock 
that  must  follow.  The  plan  was  perfect  in  every  detail.  As  Gen. 
Cox,  repelling  the  criticisms  which  had  been  made  on  his  com- 


POSITION  OF  THE  ARMIES. 


235 


^^"—    „__    CHEATHAM'S       CORPS 


BATTLE-FIELD  OF   FRANKLIN. 


236  CONFEDERATES  DRIVEN  BACK. 

he  had  lost  his  life,  for  by  this  act  of  madness  he  lost  a 
thousand  men !  The  result  was  what  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. As  the  enemy's  line  of  battle  overlapped  these 
brigades  on  both  sides,  it  instantly  closed  in  upon  them, 
and  poured  in  such  a  fire  that  in  a  few  moments  they 
were  utterly  broken,  and  rushed  at  full  speed  back  to  the 
entrenchments,  the  Confederates  following  in  hot  pursuit. 
This  was  a  double  disaster.  Not  only  were  the  brigades 
themselves  overwhelmed,  but  the  whole  line  had  to  hold 
its  fire  for  fear  of  killing  its  own  men ;  and  so  when  the 
column  rushed  into  the  works,  their  pursuers  rushed  in 
after  them,  and  were  inside  of  the  Federal  lines,  where 
they  seized  the  shotted  guns,  and  whirled  them  about  to 
pour  their  contents  into  the  flying  crowd.  But  in  the  wild 
uproar,  even  the  horses  had  caught  the  panic,  and  tearing 
away  fled  down  the  road,  with  the  limbers  containing  the 
primers,  so  that  the  guns  could  not  be  discharged  ;  and  in 
the  midst  of  this  confusion,  the  tide  of  battle  rolled  back 
again,  and  all  was  recovered. 

But  this  was  not  accomplished  without  a  terrific  con- 
flict. In  the  rear  of  the  line  the  ground  deocends  in  a 
gentle  slope,  and  here  a  reserve  brigade  of  two  thousand 
men,  under  Colonel  Opdycke,  had  been  ordered  to  He  down, 
that  they  might  not  be  exposed  till  they  were  needed. 
They  had  been  warned  of  the  danger  of  a  break  in  the 
line,  and  now,  at  the  call  of  their  leader,  they  sprang  to 
their  feet,  and  rushed  upon  their  assailants  with  the  bay- 

manding  officer  for  this  disposition,  as  also  for  his  being  at  Fort 
Granger  instead  of  being  with  him  at  the  front,  said  with 
emphasis,  "General  Schofield  was  exactly  where  he  ought  to 
have  been,  and  the  orders  issued  were  exactly  what  they  ought 
to  have  been."  He  might  have  added,  that  if  those  orders  had 
been  strictly  obeyed,  the  result  would  have  been  not  only  the 
defeat  but  the  entire  destruction  of  Hood's  army. 


GENERALS  RALLYING  THE  MEN.  23T 

onet.  So  sudden  was  this  apparition  of  armed  men,  start- 
ing up  as  if  they  had  literally  come  out  of  the  ground, 
and  so  tremendous  their  onset,  that  some  accounts  make 
their  commander  the  hero  of  th^battle.  It  would  be  more 
con*ect  to  say  one  of  the  heroes :  for  there  is  no  need  to 
exalt  him  at  the  expense  of  others,  who  shared  in  the 
same  achievement.  This  brave  officer  now  sleeps  in  a  sol- 
dier's grave,  and  no  praise  can  be  too  great  for  his  courage 
at  that  decisive  moment.  But  with  his  brigade  were  the 
portions  of  the  two  divisions  under  E-eiUy  and  Strickland 
that  had  been  pushed  back  by  the  rush  of  Wagner's  men, 
with  the  avalanche  of  Confederates  behind ;  but  who,  as 
soon  as  the  mingled  mass  swept  by,  so  that  they  could 
distinguish  friend  from  foe,  reformed  under  those  gallant 
soldiers.  All  those  in  high  command  did  their  duty  on 
this  great  day.  General  Stanley  had  been  so  sure  that 
the  attack  of  the  enemy,  when  it  came,  would  be  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  where  he  was,  that  he  had  remained 
there  with  General  Schofield  till  the  firing  began.  Then 
he  mounted  his  horse,  and  spurred  to  the  front  just  in 
time  to  meet  Wagner's  brigades  (that  belonged  to  his  ovni 
Fourth  Corps)  in  fuU  retreat ;  and  exerted  himself  with 
the  utmost  energy  to  rally  them,  when  his  horse  was  shot 
under  him,  and  he  was  wounded,  and  compelled,  very  much 
against  his  wiU,  to  return  to  his  quarters  for  surgical  skill. 
This  threw  the  whole  burden  of  command  upon  General 
Cox  at  a  moment  when  the  fate  of  the  army  was  at  stake. 
The  imminent  peril  inspired  him  to  increased  activity,  so 
that  he  seemed  to  fly  from  point  to  point.  The  voice  of 
command  could  not  be  heard  in  the  uproar  of  battle  ;  but 
soldiers  along  the  Hne  could  see  that  figure  waving  his 
sword  in  air,  and  dashing  wherever  the  combat  was  the 
deepest  and  the  danger  the  greatest;  and  catching  the 
inspiration,  they  reformed  their  broken  ranks,  and  rushed 


238  ATTACK  OF  CHEATHAM''S  CORPS. 

upon  the  foe  with  a  fury  that  was  irresistible.  The  issue 
is  briefly  told  :  "  There  was  a  few  minutes'  fierce  melee, 
but  the  guns  were  retaken,  and  all  the  men  in  gray 
inside  the  parapet  were  dead  or  prisoners." 

General  Schofield,  who  was  watching  the  battle  from 
the  Fort,  had  felt  his  heart  sink  as  he  heard  the  yells  with 
which  the  Confederates  rushed  over  the  works,  and  saw 
his  own  men  swept  away  by  the  torrent.  For  the  moment 
his  heart  stood  still,  for  it  seemed  as  if  the  battle  was  lost. 
But  he  soon  breathed  again,  for  though,  at  the  distance  he 
was,  he  could  not  see  the  forces  engaged,  since  the  roll  of 
musketry  was  so  incessant  that  friend  and  foe  were  wrap- 
ped in  a  dense  cloud  of  smoke  ;  yet,  as  the  space  behind 
was  clear,  and  he  could  see  that  there  were  no  more  men 
running  to  the  rear,  he  kne^7  that  his  troops  had  regained 
their  position. 

This  tremendous  attack,  which  had  threatened  to  de- 
stroy the  Federal  army,  had  been  made  in  the  centre  by 
General  Cheatham.  Those  who  saw  it  coming  say  that 
never  was  there  seen  in  war  a  grander  sight  than  that  of 
this  whole  Corps,  massed  in  one  mighty  avalanche,  sweep- 
ing down  with  a  force  that,  it  seemed,  must  be  irresistible. 
One  who  looked  at  it  with  a  soldier's  eye,  in  which  admi- 
ration mingled  with  dread,  draws  this  picture  :  "  The  day 
had  been  bright  and  warm  ;  the  afternoon  sun  was  setting 
on  the  distant  hills;  and  in  the  hazy,  yellow  light,  and 
with  their  yellowish-brown  uniforms,  those  in  the  front 
ranks  seemed  to  be  magnified  in  size :  one  could  almost 
imagine  them  to  be  phantoms  sweeping  along  in  the  air. 
On  they  came,  and  in  the  centre  their  lines  seemed  to  be 
many  deep  and  unbroken,  their  red,  tattered  flags,  as  numer- 
ous as  though  every  company  bore  them,  flaring  in  the  sun's 
rays,  with  conspicuous  groups  of  general  and  staff  officers 
in  their  midst,  and  a  battery  or  two  in  splendid  line  charg- 


GREAT  LOSS  OF  OFFICERS.  239 

ing  along  between  the  divisions."  This  magnificence  was 
terribly  marred  when  the  broken  Federal  line  was  restored, 
and  the  troops  poured  in  their  deadly  fire.  But  still  the 
charge  was  renewed  with  incredible  fury.  Again  and  again 
the  Confederates  rushed  to  the  assault,  even  when  it  seemed 
hopeless,  for  the  fire  never  slackened  an  instant.  Instead  of 
coming  in  fitful  volleys,  it  was  one  continuous  roar,  sweep- 
ing away  whole  ranks  of  men  ;  so  that  the  survivors,  as  they 
staggered  on,  had  to  pass  over  the  dying  and  the  dead. 
Major  Vaulx  told  us  of  the  terrible  slaughter  in  what 
passed  under  his  own  observation.  He  said  :  "  Cheatham's 
old  division  (which  still  retained  his  name  after  he  had 
been  promoted  to  the  command  of  a  corps),  was  com- 
manded by  General  John  C.  Brown.  I  was  riding  at  his 
side  when  a  ball  struck  him,  and  he  fell  forward  on  his 
horse's  neck.  I  at  once  dismounted,  and  with  others 
lifted  him  off  and  placed  him  in  an  ambulance,  to  be  car- 
ried from  the  field,  when  I  mounted  and  rode  on,  till  of 
five  general  officers  attached  to  our  division,  besides  the 
commander,  who  had  just  been  wounded,  three  were 
killed,  and  the  fifth  captured  inside  the  Federal  works ; 
while  of  the  staff  officers  attached  to  the  division  and  to 
the  four  brigades,  out  of  twelve,  all  hut  one  were  either 
killed  or  wounded !  Such  a  loss  of  general  and  staff  offi- 
cers, I  never  saw  before  in  any  battle  that  I  was  in,  and 
indeed  do  not  think  I  ever  read  of  in  war." 

While  this  murderous  conflict  was  going  on  in  the  cen- 
tre, another  great  Corps  (that  of  Stewart),  on  the  right  of 
Cheatham,  was  converging  towards  the  Federal  lines.  It 
came  on  with  unbroken  ranks  till  it  got  within  range  of 
the  guns  from  the  other  side  of  the  river,  which  swept 
that  part  of  the  field,  and  the  heavy  shot  plunging  into 
the  sohd  columns,  cut  long  lanes  of  death.  But  "  officers 
on  horseback  and  afoot  were  at  every  gap,  trying  to  close 


240  STEWART^S  CORPS. 

them  up,"  and  the  unf alien  brave  kept  on  till,  as  they  came 
nearer  and  nearer  the  works,  their  numbers  grew  fewer. 
Never  did  men  fight  more  desperately,  and  yet  more  hope- 
lessly, as  even  Major  Vaulx  had  to  admit.  To  one  who  has 
shared  in  the  fierce  conflict  of  battle,  it  always  seems  as  if 
there  might  have  been  done  something  more  ;  and  in  the 
morning,  as  we  were  overlooking  the  field,  and  he  recalled 
every  feature  of  the  great  struggle,  he  had  felt  again  all 
the  excitement  of  the  hour.  Standing  up  in  the  carriage, 
and  looking  intently  at  the  ground  in  front,  along  which 
Stewart's  men  had  swept  up  to  the  Federal  lines,  he  took 
in  the  whole  scene,  and  it  seemed  as  if  a  little  more  elan, 
or  a  thousand  or  two  more  men,  might  have  carried  the 
day,  and  he  exclaimed,  "By  the  Eternal!  Stewart  ought 
to  have  broken  through  ! "  It  was  the  natural  feeling  of  a 
soldier,  and  yet  in  it  he  forgot  that  the  Confederates,  fear- 
less as  they  were,  were  met  with  a  courage  equal  to  their 
own  ;  and  later  in  the  day,  when  we  came  to  ride  over  the 
ground  by  which  Stewart's  Corps  advanced,  he  saw  at  once 
the  concentrated  fire  which  it  had  to  encounter,  and  was 
able  to  do  more  full  justice  to  his  brave  companions-in- 
arms in  recognizing  that  they  had  done  all  that  human 
valor  could  do. 

A  gentleman  recently  living  in  New  York,  who  was  in 
command  of  a  battery  of  steel  guns,  told  me  that  as  he 
moved  forward,  he  passed  over  the  hill  on  which  General 
Hood  had  taken  his  position,  in  whose  presence  he  sud- 
denly found  himself,  and  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to 
pause  a  moment  to  see  how  a  Commander  looked  in  the 
midst  of  a  battle.  As  he  described  the  scene,  "  General 
Hood  was  sitting  on  a  flat  rock  at  the  foot  of  a  tree,  his 
legs  (one  of  which  was  of  wood,  to  replace  the  original 
that  had  been  lost  in  battle)  extended  in  front,  between 
which  a  fixe  had  been  lighted,  and  was  still  smouldering. 


THE  LULLS  OF  THE  BATTLE.  241 

At  the  instant  one  of  General  Cheatham's  staff  rode  up  in 
great  excitement  to  report  that  he  had  carried  a  part  of 
the  Federal  line,  but  could  not  hold  it  unless  immediately 
reinforced.  *  How  doee  Gen.  Cheatham  estimate  his  loss? 
asked  Gen.  Hood.  'At  one-half  of  his  whole  command  in 
killed  and  wounded/  was  the  reply.  At  this  he  raised  his 
hands,  clasping  them  together,  and  exclaimed  '-  O  my  God ! 
this  awful,  awful  day ! '  Then  recovering  himself,  he  turn- 
ed to  one  of  his  staff  and  said  *  Go  to  Gen.  Stephen  D.  Lee, 
and  tell  him  to  move  up  to  the  support  of  Gen.  Cheatham, 
putting  in  Johnson's  division  first,  and  Clayton's  next.' 
As  my  battery  was  between  the  two,  I  knew  that  my  time 
had  come,  and  moved  on  with  the  rest." 

And  now  the  battle  raged  all  along  the  lines.  The  first 
success  of  the  Confederates  proved  their  ruin,  as  it  had 
been  so  easily  gained  that  it  led  them  to  repeat  the 
attack,  pouring  division  after  division  upon  the  works, 
only  to  see  them  melt  away  under  that  terrible  fire.  After 
these  terrific  charges,  came  what  was  not  less  impressive-  - 
the  lulls  of  the  battle.  First,  there  was  a  sound  in  the 
distance,  as  of  a  great  multitude  in  motion,  coupled  with 
a  fearful  yell,  which  culminated  in  a  rush  and  roar,  as  the 
living  human  wave  struck  upon  the  beach,  and  broke  and 
roUed  back  again.  Then  for  a  few  minutes  there  was  a 
lull,  as  the  enemy  were  gathering  their  forces  to  renew  the 
onset — a  comparative  silence,  broken  only  by  the  groans 
of  the  wounded  and  the  dying.  One  who  was  in  the  battle 
writes  me  that  the  charge  itself  was  not  so  dreadful  as 
these  moments  of  expectation.  Then  rose  the  same  ter- 
rific yell,  and  on  they  came  again  with  the  same  desperate 
courage,  but  not  with  the  same  confidence  :  for  they  came, 
not  with  erect,  martial  air,  but  with  heads  bent  low,  as 
when  facing  a  tempest,  and  caps  drawn  over  their  eyes, 
as  if  to  shut  from  their  sig:ht  the  fate  that  awaited  them. 


242  ATTACKS  CONTINUED  IN  THE  NIGHT. 

At  some  points  of  the  line  the  fire  was  such  as  no  troops 
could  stand  long.  Mr.  Fullton,  of  the  Maxwell  House  in 
Nashville,  told  me  that  he  belonged  to  a  troop  of  cavalry, 
which,  when  earthworks  were  to  be  attacked,  were  dis- 
mounted, every  fourth  man  being  detailed  to  hold  the 
horses,  while  the  rest  served  as  infantry.  As  they  advanced 
to  the  attack,  they  had  hardly  come  within  range  before 
twelve  of  his  company  fell,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole 
would  be  swept  away  if  they  had  not  been  ordered  to 
throw  themselves  on  the  ground  ;  and  there,  he  said,  "  loe 
lay  the  greater  part  of  the  night,  not  daring  to  raise  our 
heads,  nor  to  crawl  forward  even  a  few  rods  to  give  succor 
to  the  wounded  and  dying,  whose  groans  we  could  hear 
distinctly  right  in  front  of  us." 

Driven  back  at  one  point,  the  charge  was  renewed  at 
another  with  the  same  desperate  courage,  but  always  with 
the  same  result,  until  it  was  evident  that  further  efforts 
were  only  a  useless  sacrifice  of  human  life  ;  and  still  the 
rage  of  battle  was  such  that  the  attacks  were  repeated  at 
intervals  far  into  the  night. 

All  these  incidents  of  the  day  were  detailed  to  me  with 
great  minuteness,  as  we  rode  over  that  battle  plain,  by 
those  who  had  been  actors  in  the  scenes  they  described. 

As  we  came  back  along  the  Columbia  turnpike  to  the 
edge  of  the  town,  Mr.  Carter  met  us  and  conducted  us  to 
the  old  Gin-House,  which  figures  in  aU  the  accounts  of  the 
battle  ;  and  along  the  line  of  the  entrenchments,  pointing 
out  where  this  or  that  Confederate  division  charged,  and 
where  the  leaders  fell.  He  had  a  theory  of  his  own,  accord- 
ing to  which,  if  his  plan  had  been  followed,  the  result  would 
have  been  otherwise.  He  was  quite  sure  that  if  Gen.  Bate, 
instead  of  rushing  headlong  into  the  fight,  and  getting  se- 
verely crippled  before  the  battle  had  really  begun,  had  been 
a  little  less  impetuous,  and  moved  round/ar^/ier  to  the  left, 


THE  CARTER  HOUSE.  243 

he  would  have  found  the  Federal  line  weaker,  and  might 
have  made  a  charge  that  would  have  led  to  victory !  Col. 
McEwen  told  how  Forrest,  the  famous  cavalry  leader,  went 
to  Hood,  and  asked  permission  to  cross  the  river  with  his 
mounted  men,  when,  as  he  said,  "  he  would  flank  the 
Federals  out  of  their  position  in  fifteen  minutes ! "  But 
the  Commander  had  made  his  own  plan  of  battle  ;  and 
being  in  an  angry  and  imperious  temper  that  day,  was  not 
in  a  mood  to  receive  suggestions,  or  to  listen  to  the  pro- 
posal of  any  manoeuvre  other  than  that  of  direct  battle, 
ond  answered  haughtily  to  the  bold  trooper  who  would 
Jiank  the  enemy,  "  No,  no !     Charge  them  out !  " 

But  leaving  speculations  as  to  what  might  have  been,  we 
proceed  to  observe  what  actually  took  place.  Mr.  Carter 
now  led  the  way  to  his  house,  which  was  the  very  centre 
of  the  battle.  As  it  stands  fronting  on  the  Columbia  turn- 
pike, which  runs  through  the  town,  and  was  but  a  few 
rods  in  the  rear  of  the  Federal  breastworks,  it  was  in  the 
angle  of  two  lines  of  battle  :  for,  when  the  brigades  of 
Wagner  came  flying  in  utter  rout,  they  swept  past  its  very 
door,  followed  by  the  Confederates,  and  the  two  sides 
fought  around  the  dwelling ;  and  when  the  onset  was 
stayed,  that  portion  of  the  line  which  was  nearest  was 
still  held  by  the  Confederates,  while  the  Federals  formed 
another  line  a  few  rods  in  the  rear,  so  that  the  house  was 
left  between  the  two  lines,  and  received  the  fire  of  both. 

At  this  time  the  house  contained  a  large  family.  The 
mother  had  died  ten  years  before,  but  the  father  was  still 
living,  and  with  him  were  a  son  (who  was  now  our  guide,) 
and  four  daughters,  a  daughter-in-law,  and  several  chil- 
dren. Of  course,  had  they  foreseen  how  near  the  battle 
would  come  to  them,  they  would  have  fled  to  the  other 
end  of  the  town,  or  across  the  river.  But  in  the  early 
part  of  the  day,  while  this  was  the  headquarters  there 


244  TAKING  REFUGE  IN  THE  CELLAR. 

was  perfect  discipline,  nobody  was  disturbed,  and  tbey  felt 
that  they  were  safest  under  their  own  roof.  And  when  at 
last  the  storm  came,  it  burst  upon  them  so  suddenly  that 
it  was  too  late  to  escape.  There  was  only  one  spot  of 
safety,  the  cellar,  and  there  they  all  took  refuge.  Here, 
self-imprisoned,  they  could  not  see  what  was  going  on 
about  them,  but  they  heard  the  roar  above  their  heads,  for 
the  thunderings  and  lightnings  were  incessant.  As  the 
mass  of  soldiers  surged  round  the  dwelling,  some  who 
shrank  from  the  awful  fire  crowded  into  the  cellar  way, 
when  the  family  retreated  behind  a  partition,  but  as  there 
was  no  means  of  barring  the  door,  the  intruders  pressed  in 
there  also,  and  into  a  third  underground  refuge,  when,  as 
Mr.  Carter  himself  tells  the  tale,  he  "turned  upon  them 
and  cursed  them  and  drove  them  out !  "  But  even  in  this 
dark  hiding-place,  he  could  look  through  the  grated  win- 
dow, and  ask  the  "  Yankee  soldiers "  how  the  battle  was 
going  I 

After  a  time  the  fury  of  the  battle  abated,  for  the  first 
shock,  which  was  the  most  tremendous  of  all,  had  spent 
itself  in  an  hour.  Then  darkness  came,  so  that  the  oppos- 
ing lines  were  partly  hidden  from  each  other.  But  still 
they  fought  on,  even  when  they  could  see  to  fire  only  by 
the  flashing  of  each  other's  guns. 

As  we  came  up  from  the  cellar,  and  went  round  the 
house,  we  saw  that  its  southern  side,  which  was  exposed  to 
the  Confederate  fire,  was  riddled  with  shot,  as  were  all  the 
outbuildings  having  the  same  exposure.  How  deadly  it 
proved  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Carter  counted 
fifty- seven  dead,  besides  the  wounded,  in  his  door-yard  the 
next  morning. 

Leading  the  way  across  the  garden,  my  friend  Cun- 
ningham stopped  under  a  pear-tree,  which  recalled  the 
memory  of  that  fearful  night.     It  was  in  the  line  of  the 


'*  KEEP  FIRING  !  "  245 

earthworks  thrown  up  by  the  Union  soldiers,  outside  of 
which  was  a  ditch.  Of  this  part  of  the  line  the  Confeder- 
ates had  got  possession,  and  held  it ;  but  so  terrible  was 
the  fire  that  again  and  again  the  parapet  was  swept  of  the 
heads  that  rose  above  it.  The  trench  below  was  filled  with 
the  dying  and  the  dead.  Standing  with  one  foot  on  the 
bodies  of  his  fallen  comrades,  and  the  other  on  the  bank,  he 
rested  his  gun — a  short  Enfield  rifle  that  he  had  been  per- 
mitted to  carry,  as  he  was  so  young  and  small — on  the  top 
of  the  works.  The  line  had  been  so  thinned  out  that  only 
a  solitary  fellow-soldier  stood  near  him,  and  now  he  was 
shot,  and  fell  heavily  (he  was  a  large  man)  against  him, 
and  tumbled  over  into  the  mass  of  dead  below.  Thus  left 
alone,  he  asked  General  Strahl,  who  had  stood  for  a  long 
while  in  the  trench,  and  passed  up  loaded  guns  to  men 
posted  on  the  embankment,  "  What  had  we  better  do  ? " 
The  answer  was  "  Keep  fii'ing ! "  But  Strahl  himself  was 
soon  shot,  and  while  being  carried  to  the  rear,  was  struck 
again  and  instantly  killed.  He  was  succeeded  by  Colonel 
Stafford,  who  also  was  killed,  and  sank  in  such  a  position 
that  he  was  braced  up  by  the  mass  of  bodies  around  him, 
so  that  when  the  morning  came,  he  was  standing  there 
stark  and  cold,  as  if  stUl  ready  to  give  command  to  the 
army  of  the  dead  I 

These  were  ghastly  memories  to  come  back  after  the 
lapse  of  so  many  years.  How  changed  the  scene  now! 
It  was  the  month  of  March,  and  already  the  breath  of 
Spring  was  in  the  air,  and  the  little  pear-tree,  which 
had  hved  through  all  the  storm  and  tempest  of  that  fear- 
ful night,  though  scarred  in  many  places,  yet  had  healed 
its  wounds,  and  was  putting  forth  its  leaves  fresh  and 
green,  as  if  it  had  never  heard  the  sound  of  battle.  So, 
while  men  die,  the  life  of  nature  keeps  on,  and  even  draws 
nourishment  from  their  blood.    Turning  to  my  companion, 


246  THE  BATTERY  IN  THE  LOCUST  GROVE. 

I  said  "  Do  you  remember  the  lines  of  Byron  on  a  friend 
of  his  youth  who  perished  at  Waterloo  : 

♦  And  when  I  stood  beneath  the  fresh  green  tree, 
Which  living  waves  where  thou  didst  cease  to  live, 
And  saw  around  me  the  wide  fields  revive, 
And  earth  come  forth  with  promise  of  the  Spring, 
I  turned  from  all  she  brought  to  those  she  could  not  bring  *  ?  " 

From  the  house,  Mr.  Carter  and  Colonel  McEwen  led 
the  way  past  the  farm  buildings  and  across  the  back  lot, 
that  had  been  the  scene  of  a  fierce  struggle,  to  a  meadow, 
in  which  stood  at  the  time  of  the  battle  a  locust  grove, 
where  was  planted  a  battery  that  inflicted  a  galling  fire 
upon  the  Confederate  lines.  It  was  for  the  capture  of 
this  battery  that  Hood  is  said  to  have  issued  his  order  in 
the  dramatic  style  of  which  Sam  Jones  makes  such  use  in 
one  of  his  sermons.* 

*I  quote  from  the  little  volume  of  Letters  published  three  or 
four  years  ago  under  the  title  "Blood  is  Thickee  thanWateb" 
(pp.  60,  61): 

"It  is  said  that  the  Confederate  line  as  it  advanced  was  enfiladed 
by  a  battery  planted  in  a  grove  of  the  black  locust  trees  so  common 
in  that  region.  Seeing  his  men  cut  to  pieces,  General  Hood,  who 
was  watching  the  battle,  sent  one  of  his  aids  with  the  following 
order :  '  Give  my  compliments  to  General  Cleburne,  and  tell  him  that 
I  ask  at  his  hands  the  battery  in  the  locust  grove.'  The  aid  disap- 
peared, and  quickly  returned  with  the  message, '  General  Cleburne 
is  dead,  sir ! '  Again  the  Commander  spoke, '  Give  my  compliments 
to  General  Adams,  and  tell  him  that  I  ask  at  his  hands  the  battery 
in  the  locust  grove.'  Again  the  message  is  returned, '  General  Adams 
is  dead,  sir ! '  Once  more  went  the  unflinching  order  to  a  third  com- 
mander, with  the  same  result.  The  moral  is  evident.  The  thrice- 
repeated  command  is  meant  to  illustrate  the  duty  of  unquestioning 
obedience,  and,  as  might  be  supposed,  is  used  with  startling  effect 
on  a  Confederate  audience,  though  the  fiery  preacher  afterward 
introduced  it  in  one  of  his  great  meetings  in  Chicago,  when,  after 


FINDING  A  SON  AMONG  THE  AVOUNDED.  24t 

But  here  is  an  incident  which  does  not  need  to  be  told 
with  an  eye  to  dramatic  effect,  since  nothing  can  add  to  its 
touching  character.  Mr.  Carter,  who  was  now  walking  at 
my  side,  had  a  brother,  Theodoric,  who  when  the  war 
broke  out  was  twenty-three  years  old,  and  though  he  had 
just  entered  the  profession  of  law,  was  so  carried  away 
by  the  excitement  of  the  hour  that  he  threw  down  his 
books  and  enhsted  in  the  ranks  as  a  private  (he  afterwards 
became  a  quarter-master)  in  the  Western  Confederate 
Army.  His  service  took  him  away  from  Tennessee,  and  I 
think  his  brother  told  me  that  he  had  not  been  home  in 
two  years.  He  was  now  in  Hood's  army,  and  perhaps,  as 
he  came  over  the  crest  of  the  hill,  he  caught  sight  of  the 
old  dweUing,  where  his  family  were  troubled  with  anxious 
thoughts  of  the  absent  son  and  brother.  In  the  night, 
word  came  that  he  had  been  wounded,  and  was  some- 
where on  the  field,  perhaps  dead  or  dying  ;  and  about  two 
o'clock  the  father  and  son  and  one  of  the  daughters  went 
in  search  of  him.  Dividing  into  two  parties,  the  son  took 
one  course,  and  the  f  j-ther  and  daughter  another,  and  thus 
they  went  from  point  to  point,  turning  the  light  of  their 
lanterns  into  the  faces  of  those  scattered  thickly  over  the 
ground.  At  length  the  father  and  daughter  found  him, 
mortaUy  wounded,  but  still  breathing,  though  unconscious. 
He  had  sacrificed  his  life  to  his  chivalrous  courage.  His 
duties  did  not  require  him  to  be  on  the  field,  but  he  volun- 
teered to  serve  as  aid  to  General  T.  B.  Smith,  and  was 
advancing  to  the  charge  when,  about  a  hundred  and  sev- 

winding  up  his  hearers  to  the  highest  pitch,  he  gave  the  word  of 
command  somewhat  after  this  fashion :  'As  Adjutant  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts,  I  ask  at  your  hands  the  city  of  Chicago ;  that  you  compel  it 
to  surrender  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  — an  undertaking  more  diffi- 
cult than  to  storm  any  battery  that  ever  liurled  death  in  the  face 
of  a  foe." 


248  THE  SOLDIER  DYING  AT  HOME. 

enty-five  yards  southwest  of  his  dwelling,  and  eighty  yards 
in  front  of  the  locust  grove,  he  received  two  fatal  wounds 
and  fell  from  his  horse.  Thus  it  proved  that,  amid  the 
horrors  of  that  fearful  night,  when  his  family  were  cower- 
ing in  terror  at  the  roar  of  the  battle  around  them,  with 
an  agony  intensified  by  the  thought  of  where  he  might  be, 
he  was  in  fact  lying  on  the  cold  ground,  bleeding  his  life 
away,  near  to  the  old  home,  almost  within  sound  of  their 
voices,  yet  beyond  their  reach  and  their  aid.  Tenderly 
they  lifted  him  up  and  carried  him  to  his  father's  house, 
where  the  next  morning  one  who  was  an  eye-witness  teUs 
me  he  saw  the  body  of  the  long-absent  son  and  brother, 
around  which  his  sisters  hung  with  the  utmost  tenderness, 
caressing  the  almost  lifeless  form,  stroking  the  pale  cheeks, 
and  whispering  gently  amid  their  tears,  "  Brother's  come 
home ! "  He  had  come  home  indeed,  though  it  was  only 
to  die  (he  continued  to  breathe  thirty-six  hours) ;  but  it 
is  something  which  is  not  always  given  to  a  soldier,  to 
draw  his  last  breath  under  his  father's  roof,  and  to  be  laid 
in  his  last  sleep  beside  the  dust  of  his  kindred.* 

*  To  these  personal  reminiscences  of  one  of  my  companions,  I  may- 
add  this,  told  me  by  another,  Col.  McEwen : 

"General  Kimball  occupied  my  house  as  his  headquarters,  at 
which  occurred  this  strange  incident.  About  four  o'clock,  after 
the  General  had  left  for  the  field,  there  lingered  a  Colonel  from 
Indianapolis  in  my  parlor;  he  was  a  lawyer,  and  a  nice  man;  he 
asked  my  daughters  to  sing  and  play  him  a  piece  of  music.  They 
hesitated,  but  I  answered  for  them,  *  Yes.'  My  daughter  asked  what 
they  should  play  ?  He  replied  that  he  had  not  been  in  a  parlor  since 
the  battle  of  Oak  Hill  was  fought,  and  that  he  did  not  know  one 
piece  of  music  from  another,  except  field  music.  I  then  spoke  and 
asked  the  young  ladies  to  sing  and  play  a  piece  which  had  recently 
come  out, '  Just  before  the  Battle,  Mother,'  telling  the  Colonel  that  it 
was  a  new  piece.    At  my  request,  they  sat  down,  and  played  and 


EVACTTATING  THE  TOWN.  249 

About  half  past  ten  o'clock  Gen.  Schofield  sent  orders 
to  Gen.  Cox  that  at  midnight  the  troops  should  be  with- 
drawn— an  order  which  the  latter  received  with  great  pain, 
as  he  felt  that  there  was  now  an  opportunity  to  destroy 
Hood's  army.  The  prisoners  who  had  been  taken,  or  who 
had  come  in  and  given  themselves  up,  reported  that  they 
were  all  cut  to  pieces  ;  that  regiments  and  divisions  were 
left  almost  -without  officers  ;  and  that  the  whole  army  was 
utterly  demoralized.  These  reports  were  confirmed  by  the 
heaps  of  dead  that  lay  all  along  the  line.  Seeing  and 
hearing  this.  Cox  felt  that  there  was  an  opportunity  such 
as  seldom  occurs  in  war,  to  end  the  campaign  with  a 
single  blow,  and  he  implored  Gen.  Schofield  to  remain, 
saying  in  the  ardor  of  his  confidence  that  he  "would 
answer  with  his  head  "  for  the  result  of  the  next  day.  The 
answer  of  Schofield  was  all  that  could  gratify  the  pride  of  a 
soldier.  He  said  :  "  Tell  Gen.  Cox  he  has  won  a  glorious 
victory,  and  I  have  no  doubt  we  could  do  as  he  suggests  in 

sung  the  piece  about  half  through,  when  I  stepped  to  the  door,  and  a 
shell  exploded  within  fifty  yards.  I  immediately  returned  and  said, 
'Colonel,  if  I  am  any  judge,  it  is  just  about  that  time  now!'  He 
immediately  sprang  to  his  feet,  and  ran  in  the  direction  of  his  regi- 
ment, but  before  he  reached  it,  or  by  that  time,  he  was  shot  through 
the  lungs,  the  bullet  passing  quite  through  him.  He  was  taken  back 
to  the  rear,  and  on  to  Nashville.  Eighteen  days  after  I  received  a 
message  from  him  through  an  officer,  stating  the  fact  of  his  being 
shot,  and  that  the  piece  of  music  the  young  ladies  were  executing 
was  still  ringing  in  his  ears,  and  had  been  every  moment  that  his 
eyes  were  open  since  he  left  my  parlor  the  evening  of  the  battle.  In 
April,  four  months  later,  after  the  war  was  over,  he  had  sufficiently 
recovered  to  travel,  when  he  came  to  Franklin,  as  he  stated,  expressly 
to  get  the  young  ladies  to  finish  the  piece  of  music  and  relieve  his 
ears.  His  wife  and  more  than  a  dozen  officers  accompanied  him.  He 
found  the  ladies,  and  they  sang  and  played  the  piece  through  for  him 
in  presence  of  all  the  officers ;  and  they  wept  like  children." 


250  HOOD^S  COUNCIL  OF  WAR. 

the  morning.  But  my  orders  from  Gen.  Thomas  are  impera- 
tive, and  we  must  move  back  to  Nashville  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble." So  the  order  was  reluctantly  issued,  and  at  midnight 
the  troops  were  ready  to  move.  But  at  this  moment  a 
fire  broke  out  in  the  town — a  building  had  perhaps  been 
set  on  fire  for  the  purpose — which  cast  a  light  over  the 
place  so  as  to  expose  every  movement  to  the  enemy.  This 
caused  a  delay,  but  at  length  the  fires  sank  down  in  their 
ashes,  and  the  wearied  soldiers  once  more  strung  their 
knapsacks  on  their  backs.  The  trains  had  been  already 
got  across  the  river,  and  the  broken  columns  resumed 
their  march. 

Ignorant  of  all  this.  Hood,  who  was  brooding  gloomily 
over  the  events  of  the  day  had  called  a  council  of  war  at 
midnight,  at  which  the  commanders  of  the  three  corps, 
Cheatham,  Stewart,  and  Lee,  reported  their  several  com- 
mands as  half  destroyed.  As  he  listened  to  tale  after  tale 
of  disaster,  his  temper,  soured  before,  became  almost 
savage.  Still  he  bore  up  with  an  unconquered  mind ; 
and,  even  while  one-fourth  of  his  army  were  stretched  in 
their  blood  upon  the  ground,  he  declared  that  he  would 
renew  the  contest  the  next  morning.  One  thing  he  had  to 
give  him  confidence.  His  heavy  artillery,  of  which  he  had 
felt  the  want  the  day  before,  was  now  coming  up,  and  he 
said  he  "  would  open  the  battle  with  a  hundred  guns ! " 
Indeed  he  could  not  wait  for  the  break  of  day,  but  at  three 
o'clock  startled  the  town  with  a  tremendous  roar.  Said 
Col.  McEwen,  "I  thought  it  would  take  my  head  ofi"."  But 
to  his  amazement  there  was  no  reply,  for  the  Federal  army 
was  across  the  river,  and  on  its  way  to  Nashville,  and  only 
heard  in  the  distance  these  last  thunders  of  impotent  rage 
and  fury.  The  sound  did  not  hasten  their  steps  an  instant, 
nor  evoke  a  taunt  or  a  cheer.  Still  they  plodded  on 
silent  as  the  stars  that  were  shining  above  them.     In  that 


THE  NIGHT  MARCH  TO  NASHVILLE.  251 

long  procession  there  was  none  of  the  pomp  and  circum- 
stance of  war,  nothing  of  that  which  might  be  expected 
in  an  army  a  few  hours  after  a  great  victory.  But  I 
beUeve  it  is  Wellington  that  has  said,  "  Next  to  a  great 
defeat,  the  saddest  thing  in  Vie  world  is  a  great  vic- 
tory." As  there  was  no  shout  of  triumph  for  the  living, 
there  was  no  mourning  for  the  dead.  "  Not  a  drum 
was  heard  nor  a  funeral  note."  The  soldiers  were  weary 
and  worn  :  many  of  them  had  been  wounded  ;  some  had 
their  heads  bound  up  ;  others  carried  their  arms  in  slings  ; 
some,  leaning  on  their  comrades,  dragged  themselves  slowly 
along.  Sadder  than  all,  as  they  took  their  places  in  the 
ranks,  they  missed  many  from  their  side  :  comrades  that 
but  a  few  hours  ago  were  "  full  of  lusty  life,"  were  now 
lying  in  their  new  made  graves,  or  unburied  on  the  plain. 
An  army  thus  stricken,  was  in  no  mood  for  exultation. 
What  a  contrast  was  this  night  mai'ch  to  that  of  the  night 
before  !  Only  twenty-four  hours  had  passed,  but  in  that 
time  they  had  lived  years !  Thus  blood-stained  with  the 
wounds  of  battle,  yet  victorious,  in  the  gray  of  morning 
they  found  rest  in  the  camps  round  the  city  of  Nashville. 

This  withdrawal  had  been  wholly  voluntary,  yet  Hood 
had  the  weakness  to  telegraph  to  Richmond,  "We  attacked 
the  enemy  at  FrankUn,  and  drove  him  from  his  outer  line 
of  temporary  works  into  his  interior  line,  which  he  aban- 
doned during  the  night,  and  rapidly  retreated  to  Nash- 
viUe !  "  as  if  he  had  gained  a  victory.  But  this  pretence 
deceived  no  one,  for  it  was  impossible  to  hide  from  his 
own  soldiers  the  awful  carnage  of  that  day.  As  soon  as 
daylight  made  it  visible,  they  had  before  their  eyes  the 
horrors  of  the  battlefield,  on  which  lay  six  thousand  dead 
and  wounded  I  Though  used  to  war,  they  had  never  seen 
such  a  sight  before.  There  were  places  where  the  dead 
lay  one  upon  another,  five  deep  ;  while  for  some  distance 


252  SCENES  AFTER  THE  BATTLE. 

the  ground  was  covered.  A  Confederate  officer  tells  me 
that  the  next  morning  he  mounted  his  horse  to  ride  to  the 
front,  but  as  he  drew  near  the  horse  started  back,  affright- 
ed at  the  smell  of  blood,  and  at  the  human  figures  that 
stared  at  him  from  the  ground,  with  every  look  of  agony 
in  their  faces  ;  and  he  dismounted  and  endeavored  to  pick 
his  way  on  foot,  but  so  thick  were  the  slain  that  he  said, 
"  I  do  not  think  it  extravagant  to  say  that  for  two  hun- 
dred yards  fr'om  the  line  of  the  intrenchments,  I  could 
have  walked  on  the  dead,  stepping  from  one  body  to 
another ! " 

As  it  was  along  this  part  of  the  line  that  the  first  rush 
of  the  Confederates  came,  here  was  the  first  shock  of  bat- 
tle, and  here  many  of  the  leaders  fell.  Cleburne,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  was  in  the  front.  He  was  the  bravest 
of  the  brave,  and  he  had  been  stung  to  the  quick  by  the 
angry  reproof  of  Hood  for  his  failure  to  attack  at  Spring 
Hill;  and  now,  with  his  Irish  blood  hot  within  him,  he 
mounted  his  fron-gi-ay  stallion,  and  putting  himself  at  the 
head  of  his  men  rode  straight  at  the  foe,  to  fall  in  the 
sight  of  both  armies,  dying  as  a  soldier  might  wish  to 
die,  "  amid  the  battle's  splendor."  Knowing  that  his  chiv- 
alrous daring  had  made  him  the  idol  of  the  Southern  army, 
I  could  appreciate  the  feeling  of  my  companions  when  Mr. 
Carter  stopped  us  and  said,  "  This  is  the  very  spot  where 
Cleburne  fell !  "  But  a  few  rods  distant  Gen.  John  Adams 
was  in  the  very  act  of  springing  his  horse  over  the  works, 
when  both  fell  together,  he  being  thrown  over  into  the 
ranks  on  the  other  side,  while  his  horse  was  left  liter- 
ally bestriding  the  works.  "  Old  Charley "  was  the  very 
type  of  a  war-horse,  and  was  almost  as  well  known  in  the 
army  as  his  master ;  and  the  figure  of  the  powerful  crea- 
ture was  very  striking  in  death,  as  he  lay  at  full  length,  his 
hind  legs  reaching  to  the  bottom  of  the  outer  ditch,  while 


(GROUPS  OF  THE  DEAD.  253 

the  long  neck  was  stretched  on  the  slope,  the  head  on  the 
very  top  of  the  parapet,  as  if  still  breathing  defiance  at 
the  foe  : 

**  There  lay  the  steed  with  his  nostril  all  wide, 
But  through  it  there  rolled  not  the  breath  of  his  pride ; 
And  the  foam  of  his  gasping  lay  white  on  the  turf, 
And  cold  as  the  spray  of  the  rock-beating  surf." 

That  war-horse  would  make  a  figure  for  a  sculptor,  almost 
as  striking  as  the  lion  of  Thorwaldsen  ;  and  the  State  of 
Tennessee  ought  to  have  it  wrought  in  marble  or  cast  in 
bronze,  as  a  type  of  the  courage  of  her  sons  on  the  field  of 
battle. 

Hardly  less  striking  than  this  were  the  groups  scattered 
far  and  wide  over  the  field :  for  the  dead  lay  in  heaps, 
torn  to  pieces  by  shot  and  shell,  till  they  had  almost  lost 
the  semblance  of  humanity ;  with  the  brave  creatures  that 
had  carried  them  into  the  battle  stretched  beside  them  : 
"Rider  and  horse,  friend  and  foe,  in  one  red  burial  blent." 

In  the  presence  of  such  awful  misery,  it  seems  an  un- 
worthy intrusion  of  human  pride  to  dispute  the  honors 
of  the  day.  It  is  not  an  hour  to  boast  when  thousands  of 
our  fellow-beings  are  lying  on  the  ground  in  the  agonies 
of  death.  The  object  for  which  the  battle  was  fought — to 
destroy  the  Union  army — ^had  utterly  failed,  and  so  far  it 
was  a  Union  victory.  But  if  only  the  glory  be  considered, 
there  is  glory  enough  for  all :  for  never  was  there  a  more 
splendid  display  of  courage  and  devotion,  than  in  the 
Confederates  who  that  day  sacrificed  their  lives  in  vain. 

The  army  that  fought  the  battle  of  Franklin,  was  not 
yet  quite  at  the  end  of  its  campaign.  The  last  shot  had 
not  been  fired.  Only  two  weeks  later — on  the  fifteenth  of 
December — it  was  to  have  a  part  in  one  more  battle  and 
one  more  victory  :  when  the  army  of  Thomas,  doubled  in 
strength  by  that  of  Schofield,  poured  forth  from  Nashville, 


254  A  LATE  CENTENNIAL. 

and  swept  all  the  encircling  hills,  by  which  the  army  of 
Hood  was  so  completely  scattered  and  destroyed  that  it 
virtually  ceased  to  exist,  as  a  force  to  be  taken  into  account 
in  any  future  movement.  This  was  the  final  blow  which 
ended  the  war  in  the  West,  so  that  General  Schofield,  with 
his  command,  was  transferred  to  the  East,  and  sent  by  sea 
to  join  Sherman  in  North  Carolina  ;  w^hile  Grant  held 
fast  to  Lee.  All  these  movements  were  linked  together, 
so  that  a  check  in  one  would  have  been  a  disaster  to  all. 
If  Schofield  had  not  "held  the  fort"  at  Frankhn,  Thomas 
might  not  have  been  able  to  hold  it  at  Nashville,  and  Hood 
would  have  swept  through  Kentucky  to  the  Ohio  ;  so  that 
all  that  was  being  done  in  Virginia  and  in  the  Carolinas, 
might  have  been  neutralized  by  a  great  defeat  in  Tennes- 
see. All  portions  of  the  country  were  comprised  in  that 
splendid  strategy,  which,  manoeuvring  over  half  the  Union 
in  a  vast  circle  winding  round  and  round,  and  contracting 
towards  a  common  centre,  finally  closed  in  and  crushed 
the  Rebellion  within  its  mighty  folds. 

Those  were  heroic  days  that  should  never  be  forgotten. 
Since  then  twenty-five  years  have  passed,  and  a  new 
generation  has  come  upon  the  stage  that  may  forget  the 
terrible  cost  at  which  the  Union  was  restored,  except  as  it 
is  recalled  by  some  memorable  anniversary.  But  a  few 
months  since  we  looked  out  of  our  windows  in  New  York 
upon  the  greatest  pageant  that  ever  swept  through  its 
streets,  the  celebration  of  the  completion  of  a  hundred 
years, from  the  foundation  of  the  Government.  In  that 
brilliant  array  the  President  of  the  United  States  was 
accompanied  by  all  the  high  officers  of  State,  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  army  and  navy.  The  enthusiasm  for 
these  heads  of  the  nation  was  divided  with  that  for  the 
Southern  Governors,  some  of  whom — like  Buckner  of  Ken- 
tucky and  Gordon  of  Georgia — had  been  Generals  in  the 


THE  BATTLE-FIELD  GROWING  GREEN.  255 

Confederate  army,  and  now  appeared  leading  the  troopa 
of  their  respective  States — not  as  captives  in  a  triumphal 
procession,  but  as  equal  partners  in  One  Country  :  rejoic- 
ing as  fuUy  as  the  North  in  the  immeasurable  blessings 
of  a  restored  Union. 

At  the  head  of  this  great  procession  rode  General 
Schofield,  the  same  who  had  fought  the  battle  which  I 
have  attempted  to  describe,  and  who,  after  a  long  life  of 
service,  has  succeeded  Grant  and  Sherman  and  Sheridan 
as  head  of  the  army  of  the  United  States.  How  could  one 
who  had  but  lately  come  from  the  field  of  Franklin,  help 
thinking  with  a  shudder  of  what  might  have  been  if  he  had 
not  planned  so  wisely  and  stood  so  firmly,  while  so  many 
brave  men  died  for  their  country,  on  that  decisive  day  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago ! 

In  visiting  a  battlefield  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  years, 
there  is  at  least  this  satisfaction,  that  nature  soon  obliter- 
ates all  traces  of  the  passion  and  the  violence  of  men. 
The  earth  drinks  up  their  blood,  and  the  grass  grows 
green  again  over  their  graves.  As  we  walked  along  the 
line  of  the  intrenchments,  I  found  every  trace  of  them  had 
been  destroyed,  as  the  ground  has  been  many  times 
ploughed  over.  But  every  Spring,  as  it  is  turned  up 
anew,  fresh  relics  are  brought  to  light.  My  friends  picked 
up  a  handful  of  buUets,  which  they  turned  over  to  me,  to 
which  I  answered  that  I  thought  I  would  take  them  to 
General  Schofield  with  the  compliments  of  his  Confederate 
friends,  who,  as  they  had  not  had  the  opportunity  pf  pre- 
senting them  when  he  visited  the  town  on  a  certain  memo- 
rable occasion,  would  make  amends  for  this  neglect  by 
presenting  them  now.  The  gallant  Major  charged  me 
especially  to  say  how  glad  they  were  that  they  had  not 
been  presented  on  the  appointed  day !  This  duty  I  per- 
formed on  my  arrival  in  Washington.    The  General  re- 


256  HEARTS  YEARN  TO  BE  KNIT  AGAIN. 

ceived  tliem  with  a  smile,  and  as  he  took  them  in  his  hand, 
pointed  out  the  peculiar  shape  of  each  ball,  which  showed 
whether  it  had  been  fired  by  friend  or  foe,  and  kept  speci- 
mens of  each,  as  interesting  and  harmless  souvenirs  of  a 
great  event,  not  only  in  his  own  life,  but  in  American 
history. 

General  Schofield  said  that  after  the  war  he  had  a  great 
desire  to  see  General  Hood,  and  renew  the  acquaintance 
which  they  had  in  the  old  days,  when  they  were  four  years 
side  by  side  at  "West  Point.  Hood  had  settled  down  in 
New  Orleans.  Schofield  wrote  to  him  several  times  to 
come  on  to  the  meeting  of  his  old  classmates.  But  he 
never  came.  In  his  last  letter  he  said :  "  To  tell  the  truth, 
I  have  ten  children  to  provide  for,  which  takes  all  my  time 
and  care."  The  reason  did  honor  to  the  soldier's  heart. 
These  were  soon  to  be  left  without  father  or  mother  :  for 
both  died  within  a  few  days  of  each  other,  and  the  eldest 
daughter  a  few  hours  after  her  father.  A  blow  so  sudden 
and  so  terrible  enlisted  great  sympathy  at  the  South,  where 
every  heart  and  every  home  was  open  to  those  who  were 
thus  doubly  orphaned.  Nor  was  it  in  the  South  only,  but 
in  the  North  also,  where  more  than  one  were  taken  into 
the  closest  relations,  as  if  they  were  of  the  same  blood. 
So  is  it  that  an  unnatural  alienation  is  sometimes  followed 
by  a  reaction  of  feeling,  which  in  its  return  causes  an  over- 
flow of  affection  and  kindness.  Especially  when  the  grave 
has  closed  over  the  heroic  dead,  old  strifes  give  place  to 
kindly,  memories,  and  flowers  blossom  out  of  the  dust. 
Severed  hearts  yearn  to  be  knit  again,  and  hands  long 
withdrawn  are  stretched  out  once  more ;  and,  though  it 
may  be  only  in  the  next  generation,  new  affections  spring 
up,  and  sweet  household  ties  come  in,  to  bind  all  together. 


CHAPTER  XVH 

VISIT  TO  THE  HOME  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON. 

Next  to  the  scene  of  the  battle  of  Franklin,  the  one 
place  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nashville  which  I  desired  to 
see,  was  the  Hermitage,  the  home  of  Andrew  Jackson. 
When  I  was  a  boy,  I  can  just  remember  his  election  as  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  During  the  two  terms  of 
his  administration,  and  for  years  after,  he  was  the  great- 
est political  power  in  the  country:  indeed  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  man  from  the  time  of  Washington  to  the  opening  of 
the  Civil  War,  filled  a  larger  space  in  the  public  eye.  He 
is  a  very  picturesque  figure  in  American  history.  He  was 
not  of  the  ordinary  run  of  politicians — smooth-tongued 
and  "all  things  to  all  men";  but  a  man  original  and 
unique,  a  product  of  nature  rather  than  of  education.  A 
child  of  poverty,  he  came  up  in  the  backwoods,  like  some 
prodigious  growth  of  the  forest.  Without  the  polish  of 
society,  he  had  a  natural  courage  and  force  of  will  that 
put  him  at  the  head  of  the  rough  communities  of  the 
border,  from  which  the  force  of  circumstances  pushed  him 
on  till  he  reached  the  highest  position  in  national  affairs. 
A  man  who  has  acted  such  a  part  in  his  generation,  is  a 
subject  of  interest  to  the  student  of  history,  and  hence  the 


258  SHUT  UP  WITH  CONFRDERATES. 

desire  which  I  felt  to  see  the  place  where  he  lived   and 
died. 

The  visit  was  made  easy  for  me  by  the  courtesy  of  Ex- 
Governor  Marks,  who  offered  to  be  my  guide,  and  to 
whose  company  was  added  the  attraction  of  that  of  his 
wife,  and  of  Mr.  Jno.  W.  Childress,  a  nephew  of  Mrs. 
Polk.  Thus  I  was  shut  up  in  a  carriage  with  three  Con- 
federates, and  I  do  protest  that  I  might  have  been  in  a 
worse  place.  Indeed  I  could  not  have  been  with  more 
delightful  companions.  The  very  fact  that  their  experi- 
ence had  been  so  entirely  different  from  mine,  put  it  in 
their  power  to  tell  me  much  which  I  could  not  know 
before,  but  was  eager  to  hear.  As  a  full-blooded  North- 
erner, I  like  to  tell  of  all  the  things  done  by  the  brave  men, 
and  brave  women  too,  of  the  North.  One  of  my  heroes  is 
General  Bartlett  of  Massachusetts,  that  young  student 
fresh  from  Harvard,  so  fair  and  dehcate  that  it  seemed 
as  if  he  could  hardly  march  in  the  ranks,  but  who  proved 
CCXAA^flf^^  a  soldier  "without  fear  and  without  reproach";  who  at 
^  c/)J^  the  siege  of  Port  Hudson,  being  unable  to  walk,  insisted 
'  ■  on  mounting  a  horse  that  he  might  take  part  in  the  battle, 
which  exposed  him  the  more  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  who 
were  so  struck  with  his  courage,  that  it  is  said  the  officers 
gave  orders  not  to  aim  at  him,  which  however  did  not 
save  him,  as  he  was  shot  in  two  places,  and  had  in  spite  of 
his  protests  to  be  carried  to  the  rear.  He  could  not  learn 
prudence  by  repeated  wounds,  but  continued  to  expose 
himself  tiU  he  was  "shot  all  to  pieces,"  when,  like  the 
brave  soldier  he  was,  he  wrote  to  one  who  had  pledged 
him  her  love,  releasing  her  from  her  engagement  to  such  a 
wreck  as  he  felt  himself  to  be,  to  which  she  replied,  like 
the  brave  woman  she  was,  that  "  she  would  marry  him  as 
long  as  there  was  body  enough  to  contain  his  heroic 
soul " !     As  I  told  this  story,  I  observed  a  flush  in  the  lady 


r^ 


A  TALE  OF  THE  WAR.  259 

at  my  side,  which  indicated  that  she  had  a  similar  story  to 
tell ;  and  to  my  inquiring  look  she  answered  that  just  be- 
fore the  war  she  had  been  engaged  to  one  who  was  called 
to  the  field,  whom  she,  with  anxious  and  trembling  heart, 
watched  as  he  marched  away  to"  an  uncertain  fate.  Then 
came  the  great  battle  of  Murfreesboro.  She  heard  that  he 
was  wounded  :  and  for  a  few  days  was  in  an  agony  of 
suspense,  an  agony  that  grew  more  intense  as  night  came 
on,  and  she  sat  alone  in  the  moonlight,  and  imagined  him 
Ijing  on  the  cold  ground !  At  length  the  storm  of  battle 
swept  farther  away,  and  the  wounded  were  in  reach  of 
warm  hearts  and  gentle  hands,  and  she  was  able  to  take 
her  place  by  the  couch  of  the  brave  soldier  whose  name 
she  was  to  bear,  and  soon  after  to  enter  on  the  life  of  per- 
fect happiness  that  has  continued  to  this  day. 

Mr.  Childress,  though  much  younger,  was  not  too 
young  to  take  part  in  the  war  at  its  close,  and  was  in  the 
battle  of  Franklin  which  I  have  described ;  and  had  the 
most  vivid  memory  of  that  night  march,  when  Schofield's 
army  passed  in  full  view  of  the  camp  fires  of  the  enemy ; 
and  of  the  terrible  scenes  of  the  following  day. 

While  thus  engaged  in  conversation,  we  had  been  rid- 
ing over  a  succession  of  hills,  till  we  were  ten  miles  from 
the  city.  The  country  around  Nashville  is  not  pictur- 
esque ;  there  are  no  mountains  on  the  horizon ;  but  the 
land  rises  and  falls  gently,  turning  up  a  thousand  slopes 
to  the  sun  and  rain,  which  bring  forth  abundantly  so  that 
the  whole  region  is  a  garden  of  fertihty. 

At  the  top  of  one  of  tliese  slopes,  a  gateway  opens  into 
a  long  avenue  of  trees,  at  the  end  of  which  stands  a  large 
house,  built  in  the  old  Southern  style,  with  a  row  of  pillars 
in  front,  the  chief  architectural  decoration  of  a  planter's 
house  in  the  old  slavery  days,  as  it  stood  in  the  centre  of 
a  great  plantation — a  sort  of  Feudal  Castle  aroun  J  which 


260  THE  HERMITAGE. 

gathered  the  mixed  population  that  owed  allegiance  to  the 
Lord  of  the  Manor.  This  was  the  Hermitage,  the  home  of 
Andrew  Jackson. 

On  this  spot  he  settled  in  the  early  part  of  the  century, 
though  not  in  the  great  house  which  we  now  see.  The 
pioneers  in  the  valley  of  the  Cumberland,  as  in  other  parts 
of  the  West,  lived  in  log  cabins.  Jackson's  first  home  was 
not  much  better.  It  stood  in  the  rear  of  the  present  Her- 
mitage :  you  may  still  see  the  old  chimney,  up  which  huge 
fires  flamed  and  roared  long  ago,  round  which  sat  the 
mighty  hunters  of  that  day  (for  it  was  not  long  after  the 
time  of  Daniel  Boone,  whose  exploits  were  the  tradition  of 
the  border),  and  talked  by  the  firelight  of  their  contests 
with  wild  beasts  and  savage  men.  In  this  humble  dwell- 
ing Jackson  lived  long  after  he  became  a  famous  man  in 
the  State  of  Tennessee  ;  it  was  from  under  that  roof  that 
he  went  forth  to  fight  his  battles,  and  (as  the  servant  told 
us)  *'  done  all  his  big  things"  I  But  in  the  course  of  years, 
as  his  military  achievements  gave  him  wide  distinction,  the 
cabin  had  to  give  place  to  something  more  stately,  that 
was  fit  to  be  the  abode  of  so  much  greatness.  It  was  at 
the  steps  of  this  mansion  we  now  drew  up. 

Ringing  at  the  door,  a  figure  appeared  that  was  in 
keeping  with  the  general  aspect  of  the  place,  venerable 
indeed,  but  a  good  deal  worn  by  the  ravages  of  time. 
This  was  an  old  servant,  over  eighty  years  of  age,  who  had 
been  born  on  the  place,  and  lived  here  all  his  life.  He  was 
now  gray  and  grizzled,  and  his  thin  garments  looked  as  if 
they  Lad  fluttered  in  the  wind  for  many  a  year,  making 
him  altogether  fit  to  be  the  keeper  of  an  old  baronial  hall, 
that  had  long  since  seen  its  best  days,  and  was  now  going 
to  decay.  Indeed  he  seemed  like  the  very  ghost  of  the 
olden  time,  but  a  gentle  and  kindly  ghost,  who  was  himself 
a  part  of  the  place,  through  which  he  moved  like  a  shadow, 


HOUSEHOLD  RELICS  261 

and  who  (instead  of  rattling  off  a  string  of  commonplaces, 
like  a  professional  guide,)  talked  simply  and  naturally  of 
his  old  master,  the  beloved  dead.  He  now  led  the  way 
into  the  interior  of  the  house,  which  is  divided  by  a  broad 
hall,  after  the  old  fashion.  On  the  left,  as  you  enter,  is  the 
parlor,  where  the  faded  hangings  and  worn-out  chairs  and 
sofas  are  the  fit  mementoes  of  departed  glory.  Here  is  a 
collection  of  souvenirs  of  the  old  soldier  :  the  chair  in 
which  he  sat,  and  the  couch  on  which  he  reclined  ;  the 
sword  that  he  wore  in  battle,  and  the  pipe  that  he  smoked 
in  peace. 

Some  of  the  relics  teU  of  the  rough  times  in  which  he 
lived  in  the  early  days  of  Tennessee.  Here  is  a  bullet 
that  he  carried  for  years  in  his  body,  where  it  was  planted, 
not  by  a  foe  on  the  field  of  battle,  but  in  a  bar-room  fight 
in  NashviUe,  in  which  he  was  shot  by  a  man  who  was  one 
day  to  fight  on  his  side  as  fiercely  as  he  now  fought  against 
him — Thomas  H.  Benton  of  Missouri,  who,  when  Jackson 
was  President,  was  his  chief  supporter  and  defender  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  Some  may  think  it  a  wrong 
to  Jackson's  memory  to  recall  these  personal  encounters. 
On  the  contrary,  I  think  it  but  just  to  paint  him  exactly  as 
he  was,  and  not  to  soften  his  features  as  if  he  were  a  saint. 
Let  us  tell  the  truth.  He  lived  in  rough  times,  in  which 
he  was  a  rough  fighter.  We  need  not  hide  this  feature  of 
the  man,  since  we  can  go  on  to  tell  how,  in  his  later  career, 
his  undaunted  courage  was  devoted  to  the  service  of  his 
country. 

As  the  border  was  in  those  days,  as  in  ours,  the  resort 
of  many  desperate  characters,  the  quality  most  prized  and 
most  honored  was  personal  courage.  A  coward  could  not 
live  in  such  a  community.  A  man  must  be  ready  to 
defend  himself  at  aU  times  and  in  all  places.  Nor  was 
this  courage  needed  only  in  personal  combats,   but  in 


262  COURAGE  OF  JACKSON. 

enforcing  the  law.  Jackson  had  picked  up  a  smattering 
of  the  law  before  he  left  his  native  State  of  North  Carolina. 
His  mother,  a  good  Scotch-Irish  woman,  had  intended  him 
for  the  pulpit,  and  he  had  actually  begun  his  studies  for 
that  holy  calling  (no  doubt  he  would  have  been  a  rousing 
preacher,  setting  forth  the  terrors  of  the  law  with  tremen- 
dous power!)  when  circumstances  turned  him  aside  to 
another  vocation.  As  he  crossed  the  mountains  to  what 
was  afterwards  to  be  the  State  of  Tennessee,  it  was  with 
an  appointment  as  a  "  solicitor,"  in  the  duties  of  which  he 
had  often  to  deal  with  the  invaders  of  public  lands — a  task 
which  called  for  a  good  deal  of  courage.  Not  less  was  this 
required  when  he  became  a  Judge.  On  one  occasion  he 
had  ordered  the  sheriff  to  arrest  a  drunken  brute  who  was 
noted  for  his  strength  and  his  ferocity.  The  sheriff 
attempted  to  execute  the  order,  but  returned,  saying  that 
the  man  was  armed,  and  threatened  to  kill  any  one  who 
should  approach  him.  Jackson  told  him  to  go  back  and 
take  the  man  dead  or  alive  ;  and  if  he  could  not  do  it 
alone,  to  summon  anybody  whom  he  wished  to  help  him, 
"  even  if  it  were  the  Judge  on  the  bench,"  to  which  the 
officer  quickly  replied,  "  I  summon  your  Honor  "  !  Instant- 
ly he  rose  from  his  seat,  and  taking  a  loaded  pistol  in  his 
hand,  advanced  upon  the  desperado,  who,  seeing  that 
further  resistance  was  vain,  at  once  surrendered. 

A  man  of  such  courage  naturally  took  the  lead  in  times 
of  public  danger.  The  settlements  had  to  be  in  constant 
preparation  against  an  attack  of  Indians.  Jackson  had 
had  a  training  in  the  school  of  war,  for  he  remembered 
the  Revolution,  when,  a  mere  boy,  he  was  taken  prisoner, 
and  struck  by  a  British  officer  with  a  sword,  inflicting  a 
scar  which  he  carried  through  life,  while  his  brother 
received  a  wound  from  which  he  died  (he  had  but  one 
other  brother  who  had  already  died  in  the  war)  ;  and  his 


''old   hickory."  263 

mother  too  sank  under  the  fatigues  of  marching  after  the 
pitiless  soldiers,  and  nursing  the  wounded  and  the  dying  ; 
so  that,  except  himseK,  the  family  was  literally  exterminat>- 
ed,  and  he  was  left  alone  in  the  world.  These  were  bitter 
memories,  which  inspired  in  th6  young  orphan  a  hatred  of 
oppression  and  cruelty  ;  and  to  the  latest  hour  of  his  life, 
nothing  roused  him  to  fury  more  than  an  act  of  injustice 
to  helpless  childhood  or  womanhood. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  the  military  career 
of  General  Jackson.  That  is  a  matter  of  history.  Whether 
he  was  a  great  soldier,  is  a  question  for  the  military  critics. 
Certainly  he  had  the  quickness  in  conception  and  prompt- 
ness in  action  which  are  the  first  requisites  of  a  leader. 
He  had  also  a  comradeship  with  his  soldiers  that  gave  him 
great  power  over  them.  He  shared  their  hardships  and 
privations,  tramping  by  their  side  in  the  long  marches 
through  forest  and  swamp,  in  which  he  proved  so  incapa- 
ble of  fatigue,  that  the  soldiers,  who  delight  to  give  nick- 
names to  their  favorite  commanders,  dubbed  him  "Old 
Hickory."  When  the  day  was  over,  he  was  ready  to  lie 
down  under  the  open  sky,  with  no  bed  but  the  leaves  of 
the  forest.  Often  provisions  ran  low,  and  the  whole  camp 
was  put  on  short  rations.  Not  unfrequently  many  a  brave 
man  had  not  a  biscuit  in  his  knapsack.  But  "  Old  Hickory  " 
made  as  light  of  starvation  as  "Old  Eliott"  did  at  the 
siege  of  Gibraltar.  In  his  Indian  campaign  his  men  were 
reduced  to  the  lowest  point,  but  he  said  "  if  they  could 
only  get  an  ear  of  corn  apiece,"  they  would  cai'ry  it  through 
to  the  end.  On  one  occasion  a  soldier  came  to  him,  say- 
ing that  he  was  literally  starving,  perhaps  prompted  to 
make  his  wants  known  as  he  saw  the  General  sitting  at 
the  foot  of  a  tree,  eating  something  with  apparent  relish. 
Instead  of  reproving  him,  Jackson  replied  that  he  was 
always  ready  to  share  what  he  had  with  his  men,  and 


264  THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. 

thrusting  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  drew  out  a  handful  of 
acorns,  saying  that  that  was  all  he  had  to  eat  I  When  a 
commander  was  thus  ready  to  suffer  the  extreme  of  priva- 
tion, and  even  to  give  his  last  acorn  to  a  hungry  soldier, 
his  men  quickly  learned  the  lesson  taught  by  such  an  ex- 
ample. And  when  at  last  he  was  able  to  face  the  enemy, 
and  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  the  fighting,  that  was 
mere  play ;  indeed  he  seemed  really  to  enjoy  it  (per- 
haps this  was  the  Irish  blood  that  was  in  him) ;  his  ardor 
rose  with  danger,  he  pressed  forward  to  the  front,  and 
seemed  to  be  everywhere  present,  inspiring  his  soldiers 
with  his  own  unconquerable  spirit. 

If  it  be  the  best  proof  of  a  great  general  that  he  wins 
victories,  certainly  Jackson  proved  his  right  to  that  dis- 
tinction. In  his  campaign  against  the  Indians  in  Florida, 
he  broke  their  power  as  effectually  as  he  afterwards 
stopped  the  English  invasion  at  New  Orleans.  In  the  lat- 
ter case  he  was  pitted,  not  against  savages,  but  against  an 
army  of  fourteen  thousand  men,  the  veterans  of  the  Penin- 
sular War,  with  whom  Wellington  had  marched  from  vic- 
tory to  victory.  Against  these  Jackson  had  less  than  half 
the  number,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were  mere  militia. 
True,  they  were  the  rifle-men  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
but  they  could  hardly  be  expected  to  stand  against  a  disci- 
plined army,  unless  they  had  been  inspired  by  a  resolute 
commander.  It  was  then  he  showed  an  energy  almost 
superhuman.  It  is  said  that  for  four  days  and  nights  he 
did  not  close  his  eyes.  To  be  sure,  he  carried  things  with 
a  high  hand  ;  he  declared  martial  law,  he  seized  cotton 
bales  wherever  he  could  find  them  to  make  breastworks, 
and  no  doubt  in  many  cases  went  beyond  the  limit  of  his 
authority,  but  his  plea  was  the  necessity  of  the  case. 
Everything  was  to  be  sacrificed  to  self-preservation.  He 
violated  the  law,  but  he  saved  the  cityl 


HOME  LIFE.  265 

But  this  is  not  the  place  to  fight  his  battles  over  again. 
Under  the  roof  of  the  Hermitage,  it  is  more  in  keeping 
with  the  domestic  surroundings,  to  speak  of  the  home-life 
of  its  former  occupants.  No  life  could  be  more  in  con- 
trast with  the  rugged  scenes  of  war.  When  the  army  dis- 
banded, and  its  commander  retired  to  his  home,  it  was  to 
enjoy  tranquillity  and  peace.  He  had  had  enough  of  pub- 
lic life,  civil  and  military ;  and  now  he  had  but  two 
thoughts — his  family  and  his  farm.  The  latter  had  been  a 
good  deal  neglected  during  his  absence,  and  needed  the 
care  of  its  master.  He  was  not  rich ;  he  could  not  be 
reckoned  among  the  wealthy  planters  of  the  South.  Nor 
was  he  a  large  slaveholder.  Not  that  he  had  any  scruples 
about  holding  slaves,  but  as  he  had  no  need  of  them,  if 
they  came  into  his  hands,  our  old  guide  said  that  "  he  put 
'em  all  out  to  traders  and  let  'em  go."  This  reduced  the 
number  of  his  cares,  and  made  his  life  more  simple  and 
easy.  It  was  then  he  built  his  new  house,  and  planted  the 
long  avenue  of  trees  before  the  door  ;  as  his  servant  told 
us,  his  master  "  set  'em  all  out  his-self." 

•  If  such  was  the  growing  beauty  around  the  Hermitage, 
still  greater  was  the  beauty  of  the  life  within.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem  in  one  of  his  violent  temper,  Jackson  was  a 
very  affectionate  husband.  If  he  hated  bitterly,  he  loved 
warmly,  and  the  wife  whom  he  had  married  in  his  early 
manhood,  was  to  her  last  hour  the  object  of  his  most 
ardent  devotion.  With  such  elements  of  happiness  with- 
out and  within,  the  life  of  the  country  gentleman  flowed 
on  as  smoothly  as  the  river  that  flowed  by  the  Hermitage. 
In  this  happy  retirement  he  remained  till  he  was  called 
to  enter  once  more  into  the  service  of  his  country. 

AU  readers  of  political  history  are  famihar  with  the 
circumstances  which  led  to  his  nomination  for  the  Presi- 
dency ;  to  his  defeat  in  1825,  when,  there  being  no  elec- 


266  THE  DEATH  OF  HIS  WIFE. 

tion  by  the  people,  Jolm  Quincy  Adams  was  chosen  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  ;  and  to  the  election  of  Jackson 
four  years  later.  Then  he  had  reached  the  height  of  his 
ambition  ;  and  yet  at  that  very  moment  aU  the  joy  of  it 
was  taken  away  by  the  greatest  blow  that  could  befall  him, 
in  the  death  of  his  wife — a  blow  that  dashed  his  triumph 
to  the  ground,  and  cast  a  shadow  over  his  whole  life.  As 
our  guide  said,  "He  was  never  the  same  man  again." 
It  was  just  as  he  was  about  to  leave  the  Hermitage  for 
Washington — the  carriages  were  already  packed — ihat  she 
was  suddenly  taken  ill  and  died  in  three  da,ja.  All  this 
came  back  again  as  her  old  servant  conducted  us  to  the 
corner  of  the  garden  where  she  is  buried.  He  remem- 
bered the  day  when  his  master  stood  beside  the  open 
grave,  into  which  was  let  down  the  form  of  her  whom  he 
had  loved  so  long  and  well.  The  old  man  said,  "It  cut 
him  to  the  heart.  You  see,"  he  added  with  his  simple 
negro  pathos,  "it  comes  mighty  hard  for  a  man  to  lose  his 
wife !  "  When  all  was  over,  "  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust,'* 
the  old  soldier,  now  alone  in  the  world,  walked  to  the  car- 
riage, which  bore  him  away  from  the  scene  of  so  much 
happiness  and  so  much  sorrow.  The  journey  to  the  Capi- 
tal was  a  melancholy  one.  In  all  the  honors  that  awaited 
him,  there  was  a  feeling  of  inexpressible  sadness  that  she 
who  had  been  his  companion  in  earlier  days,  who  had 
shared  his  humbler  fortunes,  was  not  with  him  to  share 
his  honors  now  ;  and  in  all  the  years  of  power,  whenever 
he  looked  across  the  Potomac  to  where  the  sun  was  going 
down  in  the  west,  his  heart  was  far  away  by  that  lonely 
grave  on  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland. 

For  eight  years  the  Hermitage  was  empty,  as  its  Master 
was  transferred  to  other  scenes.  When  Jackson  came  to 
Washington,  there  was  great  curiosity  to  see  him,  as  he 
had  been  pictured  in  very  different  forms  by  friends  and 


A  PRESIDENT  NOT  MERELY  IN  NAME.  267 

foes.  Some  -who  looked  for  a  rough  specimen  of  the  bor- 
der, a  sort  of  untamed  barbarian,  were  surprised  to  find 
"  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,"  with  a  fine  soldierly  pres- 
ence, a  natural  dignity,  and  courtly  manners.  It  was  soon 
discovered  that  he  was  to  be  President  not  merely  in 
name  ;  that  he  was  not  to  be  simply  an  ornamental  person- 
age, a  mere  figure-head  of  the  ship  of  State,  but  an  em- 
bodiment of  power,  that  would  be  felt  in  every  department 
of  the  Government.  And  how  did  he  use  this  vast  power  ? 
"Wisely  and  well  ?  or  capriciously  and  to  the  injury  of  his 
country  ?  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  imperious  tem- 
per which  fitted  him  for  military  command,  to  some  extent 
unfitted  him  for  civil  administration.  Military  power  is 
not  the  best  preparation  for  a  more  restricted  authority. 
It  has  often  been  said  of  General  Grant  that  he  thought 
he  could  conduct  a  government  as  he  commanded  an 
army,  simply  by  issuing  his  orders  to  his  lieutenants.  The 
same  could  have  been  said  with  more  truth  of  Jackson,  as 
he  was  of  a  temper  more  arbitrary.  He  was  not  a  man  to 
weigh  public  questions  in  the  balance  with  slow  and  cau- 
tious judgment.  He  could  not  brook  opposition.  He  had 
strong  likes  and  disHkes :  he  loved  his  friends  and  hated 
his  enemies  ;  and  viewing  public  questions  in  their  per- 
sonal relations,  his  administration  ran  into  a  personal  gov- 
ernment. That  the  powers  and  the  emoluments  of  office 
should  be  enjoyed  by  those  who  were  hostile  to  the  head 
of  the  Government,  seemed  to  him  an  injustice  to  himself 
and  to  his  loyal  supporters,  though  the  saying  which  has 
been  imputed  to  him,  "  To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils," 
was  in  fact  the  utterance  (such  I  believe  is  the  truth  of  his- 
tory) of  Governor  Marcy  of  New  York,  whom  its  people  at 
least  regard  as  being  entitled  as  much  as  any  man  of  his 
day,  to  the  name  of  a  statesman  and  a  patriot.  He  may 
have  spoken  it  in  jest,  but  it  was  a  most  unfortunate  phrase, 


268  WAR  WITH  THE  UNITED  STATES  BANK. 

and  declares  a  vicious  principle.  While  condemning  it  in 
the  strongest  terms,  it  is  but  simple  justice  to  Jackson  to 
say,  that  his  faults  grew  to  some  extent  out  of  his  virtues  ; 
that  they  were  the  faults  of  a  generous  nature.  If  he  had 
been  a  man  with  no  hot  blood  in  his  veins,  but  cold  and 
passionless,  he  might  have  been  saved  from  mistakes  into 
which  he  was  led  by  his  ardent  temperament.  If  he  had 
not  loved  his  friends  so  well,  he  might  have  served  his 
country  better.  But  his  friendships,  like  his  hatreds, 
warped  his  judgment.  So  in  his  political  views,  whichever 
side  he  took,  he  took  strongly ;  he  was  sure  that  he  was 
right ;  and  his  fierce  determination  to  do  right  often  led 
him  to  do  wrong. 

In  the  glass  case  which  contains  the  personal  relics,  is  a 
pen  which  has  a  history,  that  makes  it  as  interesting  as  a 
pen  that  has  been  used  in  the  signature  of  a  treaty  of 
peace  or  a  declaration  of  war.  It  is  the  pen  with  which 
he  signed  his  vek)  of  the  bill  that  had  passed  Congress  to 
renew  the  charter  of  the  United  States  Bank !  It  is  a  plain 
quill  pen,  for,  as  the  old  darky  said,  '*  The  Gineral  alius 
wrote  with  a  quill ;  he  didn't  use  none  o'  them  fine  gold 
pens,  like  you  'uns."  But  though  it  was  only  a  gray  goose 
quill,  it  was  enough  to  write  a  decision  which  shook  the 
country.  His  enemies  claimed  that  it  caused  a  financial 
convulsion,  which  spread  ruin  and  disaster  far  and  wide. 
Certain  it  is,  that  it  precipitated  a  fierce  conflict ;  and  when 
he  followed  it  up  by  removing  the  deposits  from  the 
United  States  Bank,  the  bitterness  of  feeling  was  such  as 
has  rarely  been  known  in  the  history  of  the  country. 
The  Senate  recorded  its  disapproval  in  a  Resolution 
offered  by  Mr.  Clay,  that  "the  President  had  assumed 
upon  himself  authority  and  power  not  conferred  by  the 
Constitution  and  laws,  but  in  derogation  of  both  " — a  cen- 
sure which  stood  upon  its  record  till,  after  a  long  agita- 


HE  PUTS  DOWN  NULLIFICATION.  269 

tion,  it  was  formally  "expunged!"  This  was  effected 
chiefly  by  the  efforts  of  Col.  Benton,  who  atoned  for  the 
bullet  he  had  once  sent  into  the  body  of  General  Jackson 
by  this  determined  and  at  last  successful  effort  to  remove 
a  blot  upon  his  name  ! 

It  was  at  such  times  as  this  that  the  old  Whig  Party 
vented  its  rage  in  wrathful  imprecations  upon  the  head  of 
one  whose  purpose  they  could  not  change.  But  even  they 
had  to  confess  that  there  were  times  when  the  country  was 
all  the  safer  because  of  "  Old  Hickory's  "  fiery  temper  and 
tremendous  wiU.  It  was  in  the  year  1832  that  nullification 
raised  its  head  in  South  Carolina — a  demonstration  that,  if 
unchecked,  might  have  ended  in  civil  war.  For  such  a 
crisis  Jackson  was  the  man  of  all  men,  for  he  permitted  no 
trifling.  He  did  not  meet  it  with  soft  phrases,  but  with  a 
decision  and  energy  that  soon  put  an  end  to  this  incipient 
rebellion.  His  proclamation  was  one  of  the  most  masterly 
State  papers  ever  issued  in  the  history  of  the  Government. 
It  dealt  with  the  argument  of  nullification  in  a  calm,  judi- 
cial manner,  ending  with  this  conclusion  :  "  I  consider  the 
power  to  annul  a  law  of  the  United  States,  assumed  by  one 
State,  incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the  Union,  con- 
tradicted expressly  by  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  un- 
authorized by  its  spirit,  inconsistent  with  every  principle 
on  which  it  was  founded,  and  destructive  of  the  great 
objects  for  which  it  was  formed."  These  were  solemn 
words,  and  they  were  made  more  impressive  by  a  know- 
ledge of  the  personality  which  stood  behind  them,  ready  to 
enforce  them  with  all  the  power  of  the  Government ;  for 
Jackson  had  declared  his  purpose,  if  the  movement  of 
nullification  were  persisted  in,  to  treat  its  leaders  as 
"traitors,"  whom  he  "would  hang  as  high  as  Haman'M 
This  mild  suggestion  set  the  nuUifiers  a-thinking,  and 
they  soon  concluded  that  it  would  be  more  prudent  to 


270  RETURNING  TO  HIS  HOME. 

wait  for  another  time,  when  a  weaker  man  should  sit  in 
the  Presidential  chair.  That  time  was  yet  to  come  when 
the  executive  power  was  in  the  hands  of  one  of  infirm 
purpose,  who  saw  the  country  drift  to  ruin,  and  felt  him- 
self impotent  to  stay  its  course.  In  the  last  days  of 
Buchanan,  when  the  Government  was  falling  to  pieces, 
because  there  was  a  weak  old  man  in  the  White  House, 
there  were  millions  of  voices  that  cried  in  despair,  "Oh 
for  one  hour  of  Andrew  Jackson ! "  The  obligation  of 
the  country  to  him  for  his  prompt  action  in  a  like  crisis, 
cannot  be  measured.  True,  it  did  not  prevent  the  reap- 
pearance of  Secession  after  he  was  in  his  grave,  but  it 
staved  it  off  for  a  whole  generation,  till  the  country  was 
strong  enough  to  deal  with  it. 

When  after  these  stormy  years  he  came  back  to  his 
quiet  home,  he  was  still  interested  in  public  affairs,  and 
the  Hermitage  was  a  shrine  to  which  politicians  came  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  But  for  him  the  work  of  life  was 
over.  He  lived  chiefly  in  memories  of  the  past.  He  used 
to  walk  slowly  through  the  long  avenue  of  trees,  his  ser- 
vant following  with  a  chair  for  him  when  he  chose  to  sit 
under  the  refreshing  shade,  where  he  could  talk  with  the 
friends  who  came  to  see  him,  or  muse  in  silence  on  the 
events  of  former  years.  It  was  then  his  mind  took  a  turn 
of  meditation  on  the  great  hereafter.  Of  Scotch-Irish 
descent,  he  had  never  forgotten  the  faith  of  his  childhood. 
In  all  the  wild  passion  of  former  years,  he  had  never  lost 
his  reverence  for  sacred  things.  While  he  was  President, 
it  was  said  by  one  who  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the 
White  House,  that  he  would  not  paitake  of  a  meal  without 
a  grateful  recognition  of  the  Giver  of  all  good.  If  there 
was  no  clergyman  present,  or  any  one  whom  he  could  re- 
quest to  ask  a  blessing,  he  would  ask  it  himself.  And  now, 
as  he  sat  in  the  twilight  of  his  years,  the  old  man  became 


BURIED  BESIDE  HIS  WIFE.  2tl 

a  child  again,  and  went  back  to  the  prayers  and  the  hymns 
that  he  learned  at  his  mother's  knee.  Near  his  house  he 
erected  a  small  Presbyterian  church,  that  he  might  wor- 
ship God  according  to  the  way  of  his  fathers.  In  it  he 
was  wont  to  meet  every  Sabbath  day,  with  a  little  congre- 
gation made  up  of  his  neighbors  and  their  servants.  It 
was  proposed  to  make  him  a  ruling  elder,  which  he  said  he 
should  consider  the  greatest  honor  of  his  life,  but  of  which 
he  thought  himself  unworthy.  Looking  to  the  future,  it 
was  natural  that  his  anticipations  should  be  connected  with 
her  who  had  been  the  light  of  his  home  and  the  joy  of  his 
existence.  As  often  as  he  visited  her  grave,  and  bent  over 
her  dust,  he  thought,  without  pain,  that  he  should  soon  be 
laid  beside  her.  An  American  Commodore,  who  had  been 
in  the  Mediterranean,  had  brought  home  a  sarcophagus, 
said  to  have  been  that  of  the  Emperor  Severus,  which  he 
desired  to  present  to  General  Jackson,  as  worthy  to  con- 
tain the  remains  of  one  so  dear  to  his  countrymen.  To 
this  he  replied,  acknowledging  the  courtesy,  but  declining 
the  honor,  saying,  "  I  cannot  consent  that  my  body  shall 
be  laid  in  a  sarcophagus  made  for  an  emperor  or  a  king. 
I  have  prepared  a  humble  depository  beside  that  wherein 
lies  my  beloved  wife,  where,  without  any  pomp  or  parade, 
I  have  requested,  when  God  calls  me  to  sleep  with  my 
fathers,  to  be  laid,  to  remain  until  the  trumpet  sounds  to 
call  the  dead  to  judgment,  when  we,  I  hope,  shall  rise 
together,  clothed  with  that  heavenly  body  promised  to  aU 
who  believe  in  our  glorious  Redeemer,  who  died  for  us 
that  we  might  live,  and  by  whose  atonement  I  hope  for  a 
blessed  immortality."  The  anticipation  was  soon  to  be 
realized.  In  a  few  weeks  after  this  letter  was  penned,  the 
end  came.  The  old  servant  took  us  to  the  room  in  which 
his  master  breathed  his  last.  It  is  a  very  modest  room  on 
the  ground  floor.     All  his  surroundings  were  plain  and 


212  A  GREAT  PERSONALriTT. 

simple  in  life  and  in  death.  Within  these  bare  walls,  on 
this  very  bed,  the  old  warrior  surrendered  at  last  to  a  foe 
that  was  mightier  than  he. 

With  this  description  of  our  visit  to  the  Hermitage,  the 
home  of  Andrew  Jackson,  I  leave  it  to  my  readers  to  form 
their  judgment  of  a  character  so  extraordinary.  I  have 
only  to  say  that,  whatever  it  may  be,  be  it  one  of  praise  or 
of  blame,  of  eulogy  or  condemnation,  they  will  find  abun- 
dant reasons  to  sustain  it,  for  in  him,  as  in  all  powerful 
natures,  there  was  a  mixture  of  good  and  evil  that  almost 
defies  analysis  and  forbids  classification.  But  with  every 
drawback,  no  one  can  read  the  story  of  this  life  without 
confessing  that  Jackson  was  a  great  personality. 

Among  the  treasures  of  the  Hermitage  is  a  chair  that 
once  belonged  to  the  Father  of  his  Country.  To  say  that 
Jackson  "filled"  the  chair  of  Washington,  would  be 
assuming  too  much.  But  with  all  his  faults — and  they 
were  many  and  marked — no  man,  not  even  Washington, 
loved  his  country  more.  Like  him,  Jackson  had  fought 
for  it,  and  was  ready  to  die  for  it,  and  in  the  hour  of  dan- 
ger to  that  Union  which  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic 
labored  so  long  to  establish,  no  successor  of  Washington — 
not  even  Lincoln — stood  more  firmly  to  maintain  the 
country's  integrity  and  honor. 


/y    X'-^ 


j^-^  ^'b'TA.HBj.tdae 


rr 


Vff-r^'^. 


'-h-A, 


'SrONtWALL"    JACKSCN 


CHAPTEE  XVm. 

STONEWALL   JACKSON. 

A  few  weeks  before  I  left  New  York  for  the  South,  I 
drove  out  to  Riverside  avenue  to  the  grave  of  General 
Grant.  It  was  a  beautiful  autumn  day.  The  leaves  were 
falling  from  the  trees  ;  the  woods  were  almost  stripped 
and  bare  ;  and  all  things  wore  the  sombre,  funereal  look 
which  is  the  token  of  the  change  that  comes  alike  on  nature 
and  on  man.  The  spot  is  one  of  great  natural  beauty — a 
swelling  mound,  perhaps  a  hundred  feet  above  the  Hud- 
son ;  commanding  a  view  of  great  extent  up  and  down  the 
river;  across  to  the  PaHsades  and  beyond  to  the  moun- 
tains ;  and  far  down  the  bay  to  where  the  sheen  of  the 
waters  fades  into  the  distant  gleam  of  the  ocean.  "What  a 
place  for  a  warrior  to  rest  after  his  stormy  life  !  And  j-et, 
though  it  be  so  calm  and  still,  it  is  within  the  limits  of  the 
great  city  in  which  he  spent  his  last  years  ;  and  thus  he  is 
recalled  to  us  if  it  be  only  by  his  grave.  As  the  Laureate 
of  England  says  of  Wellington,  who  sleeps  in  the  very  heart 
of  London,  under  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's,  so  may  we  say  of 
our  honored  dead : 

'*  Let  the  sound  of  those  he  wrought  for, 
And  the  feet  of  those  he  fought  for, 
Echo  round  his  bones  forevermore." 


274  THE  VALLEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

From  the  grave  of  our  beloved  soldier  it  is  a  natural 
transition  to  that  of  his  great  adversary,  who  sleeps  far 
away  among  the  hnis  of  the  old  Commonwealth  which  he 
so  much  loved.  The  fact  that  he  led  the  opposing  armies, 
does  not  abate  the  interest  with  which  we  study  his  extra- 
ordinary career.  The  time  has  come  when  we  can  do 
justice  to  those  who  fought  against  us,  and  even  claim 
their  valor  and  self-devotion  as  a  part  of  our  national 
inheritance  of  glory.  As  I  have  somewhat  of  the  instinct 
of  an  Old  MortaUty,  I  confess  to  a  very  great  interest  in 
visiting  their  homes  and  sepulchres.  And  so,  as  I  retur^.- 
ed  from  the  South,  I  took  my  way  across  the  mountairs, 
that  I  might  spend  a  day  in  the  retired  and  most  beautiful 
spot  where  General  Lee  spent  his  last  years  ;  where  he 
died  and  is  buried ;  and  where  his  "  right  arm "  (as  he 
called  "Stonewall"  Jackson)  was  buried  before  him. 

I  came  an  entire  stranger,  knowing  no  one  ;  but  as  I 
stepped  from  the  car,  a  gentleman  called  me  by  name,  and 
"took  me  to  his  own  home."  It  was  Professor  J.  J.  White 
of  the  College,  who  received  me  with  as  much  kindness  as 
if  I  had  been  an  old  friend.  Perhaps  it  gives  color  to  all 
my  impressions  both  of  the  CoUege  and  the  town,  that 
they  are  associated  with  such  kindly  hospitality. 

Lexington  is  situated  in  that  part  of  the  Old  Dominion, 
which,  being  between  the  Blue  Eidge  and  the  AUeghanies, 
is  known  as  the  Great  Valley  of  Virginia.  This  is  at  a 
considerable  elevation  above  the  sea — it  is,  in  fact,  a 
genuine  table-land,  or  plateau — but  being  waUed  in  by 
ranges  on  both  sides,  it  has  the  aspect  of  a  broad  and  open 
valley,  lying  in  the  lap  of  its  guardian  mountains.  The 
region  is  both  picturesque  and  historical.  Settled  at  an 
early  day  by  a  sturdy  race  from  the  North  of  Ireland,  sons 
of  the  men  who  fought  at  the  siege  of  "Derry,"  it  has 
always  had  a  remarkable  population.      A  place  of  such 


WASHINGTON  COLLEGE.  2t5 

"  sightliness,"  and  in  the  centre  of  such  a  people,  seemed 
fitted  for  an  Institution  of  Learning,  and  here,  more  than 
a  hundred  years  ago,  was  set  up  on  the  hill-top  one  of  the 
best  Academies  of  the  times  before  the  Revolution,  whose 
name  of  "  Liberty  Hall "  showed  that  even  then  the  spirit 
of  independence  was  abroad — a  name  which  gave  way, 
after  a  few  years,  when  the  Academy  had  grown  into  a 
College,  to  that  of  Washington,  to  which  it  had  a  just  title, 
as  it  received  its  first  endowment  from  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  in  a  property  valued  at  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
given  to  him  by  the  State  of  Virginia,  which  he  accepted 
only  on  condition  that  he  might  devote  it  to  this  object. 
And  here,  half  a  century  later,  rose,  as  a  fit  accompaniment 
to  the  College,  a  Military  Academy,  modelled  after  that  at 
West  Point,  to  furnish  defenders  to  the  country.  But 
intensely  Southern  in  its  associations  and  sympathies  (or 
it  might  be  more  accurate  to  say,  intensely  Virginmn),  it 
followed  its  State  in  the  movement  of  Secession,  and  among 
the  first  recruits  that  went  into  the  Confederate  army  were 
students  from  Washington  College,  and  cadets  from  the 
Military  Academy. 

Indeed  they  had  hardly  need  to  go  to  the  war,  for  the 
war  came  to  them.  From  the  very  beginning  the  Valley 
of  Virginia  was  a  scene  of  conflict.  As  it  is  a  rich  agricul- 
tural region,  it  was  the  nearest  and  most  convenient  source 
of  supplies  to  the  Confederates  in  the  field,  and  was  called 
"  the  backbone  of  the  Confederacy,"  and  hence  its  posses- 
sion became  an  object  of  contest  for  both  armies. 

Among  the  earliest  of  those  who  volunteered  for  ser- 
vice, was  a  professor  in  the  "  Military  Institute,"  Thomas 
Jonathan  Jackson.  A  Virginian  by  birth  (born  in  1824), 
he  was  educated  at  West  Point,  where  he  was  in  no  wise 
conspicuous.  He  did  not  rank  high  in  his  class.  His 
mind  was  not  a  brilliant  one,  at  least  in  acquiring  know- 


216  THOMAS  JEFFERSON  JACKSON. 

ledge  ,  it  was  not  dull,  but  it  was  slow  ;  and  whatever  he 
learned  came  by  the  hardest.  But  he  kept  at  it  with  a 
dogged  persistency,  so  that  each  year  he  stood  higher  than 
before,  particularly  in  mathematics,  a  study  most  necessary 
in  war.  Graduating  in  1846,  at  the  time  of  the  Mexican 
War,  he  was  immediately  ordered  to  Mexico,  where  though 
but  a  lieutenant,  he  showed  such  courage  and  capacity, 
particularly  at  the  storming  of  Chapultepec,  that  he  was 
brevetted  a  Major.  After  his  return  to  the  United  States, 
he  became  a  Professor  in  the  Military  Institute  at  Lexing- 
ton, a  position  in  which  he  did  fairly  well ;  but  he  was  not 
a  great  teacher,  as  he  had  not  been  a  great  scholar.  In  his 
class-room  exercises,  he  was  faithful  and  exact,  and  always 
showed  that  he  had  himself  mastered  the  subject ;  but  he 
had  none  of  the  personal  magnetism  which  inspires  young 
minds  with  enthusiasm.  In  short,  there  was  nothing  to 
indicate  that  this  man  was  to  prove  himself  one  of  the 
greatest  soldiers  of  his  time. 

In  external  appearance  there  could  not  be  a  greater 
contrast  than  between  this  plain  soldier  and  General  Lee, 
who  was  the  model  of  a  military  commander,  graceful  in 
person,  and  stately  in  manners,  with  a  natural  dignity  that, 
while  it  did  not  repel,  did  not  permit  any  familiarity. 
Jackson  had  not  a  particle  of  grace.  Brave  as  a  lion  in 
battle,  he  was  never  at  ease  in  society.  One  of  his  old 
friends  here  in  Lexington,  who  met  him  often,  teUs  me 
that  his  manner  was  so  wanting  in  ease,  that  when  he 
entered  a  room,  he  greeted  the  company  with  an  awkward 
military  salute,  and  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  a  chair,  bolt 
upright,  as  if  eager  to  be  off,  asking  a  few  abrupt  ques- 
tions, and  answering  "Yes"  or  "No";  and  then,  rising  as 
abruptly  as  he  came,  with  a  bob  of  his  head,  and  a  short 
"  Good  morning,"  jerked  himself  out  of  the  room  ! 

But  Professor  White,  who    knew  him   equally  well, 


A  PLEASING  PICTURE.  211 

thinks  this  does  not  do  him  justice,  and  says,  "  There  has 
been  some  disposition  even  among  Southern  writers  to 
caricature  Jackson  as  a  man,  in  the  effort  to  place  Jackson 
the  soldier  in  bolder  relief";  and  then  he  draws  such  a 
loving  picture,  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  letting  my  read- 
ers enjoy  it  with  me  : 

"A  certain  blunt,  curt,  and  reticent  habit,  which  marked  the 
soldier,  has  been  thought  to  characterize  him  in  social  inter- 
course. Such  was  not  the  case.  I  met  him  very  often  in  society, 
and  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he  was  modest,  genial,  courteous, 
and  notably  polite  to  every  one.  He  was  not  graceful  in  figure 
or  in  movement,  but  in  spirit  was  highly  so.  He  had  a  peculiarly 
gentle  expression  of  countenance,  and  moved  easily  in  a  social 
scene,  making  it  a  point  to  speak,  at  least  for  a  few  minutes,  to 
every  lady  present,  with  no  appearance  of  constraint  or  embar- 
rassment, and  had  a  smile  and  pleasant  word  for  every  acquaint- 
ance. His  whole  manner  was  so  gentle  and  unobtrusive,  his 
punctilious  regard  for  the  feelings  of  others  so  invariable,  his 
unselfishness  so  striking,  that  if  his  reputation  in  the  Mexican 
war  had  not  been  known,  I  do  not  think  that  the  rough  soldier 
would  have  been  thought  of  in  connection  with  him.  My  friends 
of  both  sexes  concur  with  me  in  these  views." 

This  is  exquisite.  Here  are  two  pictures  very  unHke, 
and  yet  not  incompatible :  for  they  are  the  pendants  of 
each  other.  The  same  man,  who  was  shy  even  to  bash- 
fulness  in  general  society  and  among  strangers,  might 
among  his  intimate  friends  lay  aside  all  constraint  and 
reserve,  and  be  as  simple  and  natural  and  delightful  as  he 
was  in  his  own  home. 

But  whatever  lack  of  grace  of  manner  there  might  be 
in  him,  one  thing  was  always  conspicuous — his  prompt 
response  to  any  call  of  duty.  For  his  pastor,  the  late  Dr. 
White  (the  father  of  my  friend  and  host),  he  had  a  respect 
amounting  to  reverence,  looking  up  to  him  as  a  superior, 
to  whom  he  was  to  "  report,"  and  from  whom  he  was  to 
receive  "  orders."     Once,  when  this  faithful  shepherd  of 


278  HIS  RELIGIOUS  CHARACTER. 

the  flock  had  dwelt  on  the  duty  of  taking  part  in  prayer- 
meetings,  Jackson  called  to  ask  if  the  obligation  rested 
upon  him,  alleging  his  own  great  diffidence;  but  being 
answered  in  the  affirmative,  soon  made  known  that  he  was 
"ready  for  duty."  But  when  it  came  to  the  point,  he  was 
so  hesitating  and  confused  as  to  produce  the  utmost  em- 
barrassment in  all  present ;  and  from  that  time  forth  the 
pastor  would  gladly  haye  excused  him  ;  but  the  intrepid 
soldier  would  not  be  excused  :  he  was  determined  "to 
fight  it  out  on  that  line,"  and  by  the  grace  of  perseverance 
finally  acquired  a  degree  of  freedom  in  prayer,  that,  if  not 
very  eloquent,  was  deeply  impressive,  as  the  utterance  of  a 
great,  manly,  Christian  heart. 

Crystal  streams  issue  out  of  the  hardest  rocks,  and  so 
under  this  rugged  exterior  there  was  a  vein  of  tender 
feeling,  half  poetical  and  half  religious.  In  writing  to 
his  wife  he  said  :  "  I  love  to  stroll  abroad  after  the  labors 
of  the  day  are  over,  and  indulge  feelings  of  gratitude  to 
God  for  all  the  sources  of  natural  beauty  with  which  He 
has  adorned  the  earth.  Some  time  since  my  morning 
walks  were  rendered  very  delightful  by  the  singing  of  the 
birds.  The  morning  carolling  of  the  birds,  and  their 
notes  in  the  evening,  awaken  in  me  devotional  feelings  of 
praise  and  gratitude,  though  very  different  in  their  nature. 
In  the  morning  aU  animated  nature  appears  to  join  in 
expressions  of  gratitude  to  God.  In  the  evening,  all  is 
hushed  into  silent  slumber,  and  thus  disposes  the  mind  to 
meditation.  How  delightful  it  is  to  associate  every  pleas- 
ure and  enjoyment  with  God  the  giver !  " 

It  may  seem  a  Httle  in  disaccord  with  this  deeply 
religious  feeling,  that  Jackson  often  fell  asleep  under  the 
most  faithful  preaching.  Perhaps  it  was  because  he  had 
such  unbounded  confidence  in  his  pastor :  he  "knew  that 
it  was  aU  right."    Or  the  explanation  might  be  the  same 


**  stone-wall"  at  bull  run.  279 

as  that  of  another  celebrated  man,  Horace  Greeley,  who 
once  told  me  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  keep  awake 
during  a  sermon :  and  knowing  him  as  well  as  I  did,  I 
could  understand  the  reason.  He  was  always  overworked, 
and  though  his  vitality  was  prodigious,  and  would  keep 
him  up  so  long  as  there  was  anything  to  be  done,  yet  the 
vital  force  was  going  out  of  him  at  such  a  rate  that  it  left 
him  exhausted  ;  and  the  moment  the  pressure  ceased,  there 
came  a  reaction  ;  and  "  as  soon  as  he  began  to  hear  the 
droning  from  the  pulpit "  (these  were  his  words,  though 
he  listened  to  one  of  the  most  eloquent  preachers  in  New 
York,  the  late  Dr.  Chapin),  he  could  not  resist  the  drowsi- 
ness that  came  over  him  ;  indeed  he  did  not  try  to  resist 
it,  for  the  feeling  was  delicious  to  his  tired  frame,  and  he 
sank  into  blissful  unconsciousness.  Jackson,  therefore,  had 
good  company.  Yet  out  of  this  "sleepy  head,"  as  some 
might  call  it,  was  to  come  the  thunderbolt  of  war ! 

The  first  indication  that  he  gave  of  what  was  in  him, 
except  that  in  Mexico,  was  at  Bull  Run,  where  his  com- 
mand, though  they  had  never  been  in  battle  before,  stood 
firm  as  a  rock,  or  in  the  phrase  of  the  campj  "  as  a  stone 
wall,"  from  which  it  was  thenceforth  known  as  the  Stone- 
wall Brigade,  and  its  commander  as  Stonewall  Jackson. 

Here  begins  a  tale  which  it  would  take  long  to  tell  of 
the  military  career  that  commenced  at  Bull  Run  and  end- 
ed at  Chancellorsville.  It  was  all  comprised  in  less  than 
two  years,  but  they  were  years  of  incessant  activity.  If  I 
had  the  intimate  personal  knowledge  of  my  friend,  Major 
Jed.  Hotchkiss  of  Staunton,  Va.,  who  was  with  him  almost 
daily  during  these  two  years,  I  could  tell  a  story  that 
would  be  worth  the  hearing.  He  was  as  near  to  Jackson 
as  any  man  could  be.  Not  only  was  he  on  his  stafi",  but  in 
the  very  responsible  position  of  topographical  engineer, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  his  chief  informed  of  the  whole 


280  DOWN  THE  SHENANDOAH. 

field  of  operations,  mapping  out  the  country — not  only- 
giving  its  great  features,  its  mountains  and  valleys  and 
rivers,  but  the  minutest  details,  to  every  country  road  and 
every  gap  in  the  mountains,  by  which  perchance  he  might 
execute  a  flank  movement,  and  by  a  rapid  night  march 
appear  in  the  morning  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy.  Thus 
the  engineer  sometimes  virtually  designated  the  field  in 
•which  the  general  was  to  fight  his  battles. 

This  old  companion  of  the  great  Confederate  leader, 
gave  up  a  day  to  accompany  me  down  the  Shenandoah 
Valley,  part  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  The  object  of  our 
excursion  was  to  visit  the  wonderful  Grottoes  of  the  Shen- 
andoah, but  in  our  way  we  passed  over  the  ground,  which 
was  the  scene  of  aU  those  campaigns  in  "  The  VaUey,"  of 
which  we  heard  so  constantly  in  the  war — events  which 
were  now  described  by  one  who  was  an  actor  in  them. 
Indeed,  I  hope  my  readers  will  appreciate  my  opportuni- 
ties as  second  only  to  those  of  an  eye-witness,  for  if  the 
Major  rode  by  the  side  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  /  rode  by 
the  side  of  the  Major,  and  listened  to  the  marvellous  story. 
True,  between  his  ride  and  mine  twenty-five  years  had 
come  and  gone,  but  as  the  memory  was  fresh  in  his  mind, 
and  he  fought  the  battles  over  again,  some  faint  reflection 
of  his  own  vivid  impressions  fell  upon  me,  and  I  felt  that 
to  hear  him  describe  Stonewall  Jackson,  was  next  to  seeing 
the  old  hero  himself. 

From  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  Jackson  had  attached 
supreme  importance  to  keeping  possession  of  the  Valley, 
as  a  barrier  against  invasion  from  the  North.  He  said, 
"  If  the  Valley  is  lost,  Virginia  is  lost."  But  how  to  hold 
it  against  much  greater  forces,  was  the  problem.  With 
his  quick  military  eye,  he  saw  that  it  could  only  be  done 
by  what  is  known  in  war  as  an  offensive-defensive  cam- 
paign, in  which  the  weaker  side  makes  the  attack,  in  order 


NAPOLEON  HIS  MASTER  IN  WAR.  281 

to  prevent  being  closed  in  upon  and  cruslied  by  over- 
whelming numbers. 

"  The  Valley  Campaign "  of  1862,  which  was  entirely 
Jackson's  own,  the  Major  looks  upon  as  the  most  brilliant 
of  the  whole  war.  As  we  were  riding  in  the  carriage,  he 
took  out  a  pad,  and  drew  a  sketch  of  the  country,  show- 
ing the  position  of  the  several  armies  (for  there  were  two 
or  three  operating  at  once  against  Jackson),  in  order  to 
illustrate  the  latter's  moves  in  this  great  game  of  war. 
Jackson  had  made  a  study  of  the  campaigns  of  Napoleon, 
whose  secret  of  victory  he  found  to  be  in  his  marvellous 
combinations,  and  in  a  rapidity  of  movement  of  which  there 
had  been  no  example  before.  This  was  carrying  into  war 
the  simple  rule  in  mechanics,  that  the  momentum  of  a  ball 
depends  on  its  weight  and  its  velocity  ;  and  sometimes"  what 
is  wanting  in  weight  can  be  made  up  by  increased  velocity. 
Eeasoning  from  this  principle,  Jackson  was  sure  that  what 
the  French  had  done,  Americans  could  do.  He  believed 
that  an  army  could  be  marched  twenty-five  miles  a  day, 
and  still  retain  strength  to  fight  a  battle  :  indeed  he  once 
marched  his  Stonewall  Brigade  forty  miles !  To  do  this, 
he  must  needs  make  the  day  a  long  one,  by  starting  with 
the  first  streak  of  light  in  the  east.  This  was  his  habit,  so 
that  the  boys  used  to  say,  "He  always  marches  at  early 
dawn,  except  when  he  starts  the  night  before." 

It  is  a  study  in  war  to  see  how  he  carried  out  this 
principle  in  the  famous  Yalley  Campaign.  His  principal 
antagonist  in  the  field  was  General  Banks  at  the  head  of  a 
large  army,*  whose  chief  business  seemed  to  be  to  watch 
Jackson,  and  keep  him  from  crossing  the  Potomac  and 
threatening  Washington.     At  the  same  time  Fremont  was 

*  On  the  6th  of  April,  1862,  Banks  reported  23,093  men  present 
for  duty.  Ten  weeks  later  (June  16th)  he  reported  nearly  ten 
thousand  less,  or  13.631. 


282  THE  VALLEY  CAMPAIGN. 

menacing  his  left  at  the  head  of  a  force  on  the  west, 
with  which  he  might  advance  into  the  Valley  and  put  him- 
self in  Jackson's  rear.  With  these  two  enemies  to  look 
after,  Jackson  suddenly  disappeared  from  the  one  in  front 
(leaving  Banks  still  "  watching "  his  abandoned  camp), 
and  literally  hurled  his  small  force  across  half  a  dozen 
mountains  and  as  many  valleys,  and  struck  Fremont  a 
blow  which  sent  him  reeling  down  the  vaUey  of  the  South 
Branch  of  the  Potomac  ;  and  then,  before  he  could  recover 
from  it,  he  turned  upon  Banks,  who,  as  soon  as  he  had 
heard  -of  Fremont's  defeat,  had  fallen  back  in  haste  to 
Strasburg,  where  he  was  overtaken  by  Jackson,  who  gave 
him  ft  similar  "love-tap"  that  sent  him  on  sixty  miles 
farther,  clear  across  the  Potomac.  The  moral  effect  of 
thesQ'two  defeats  was  not  limited  to  those  immediately 
engaged:  it  stopped  McDowell,  who  was  on  the  march 
with  40,000  men,  to  take  part  in  the  campaign  against 
Bichmond — a  movement  which  was  immediately  arrested, 
that  he  might  be  held  in  a  position  to  cover  Washington. 
Having  thus  defeated  twa  armies  and  paralyzed  a  third^ 
Jackson  obeyed  the  injunction  to  "  gather  up  the  frag- 
ments that  nothing  be  lost."  At  Winchester  the  Govern- 
ment had  accumulated  enormous  stores — the  waggon  train 
that  took  them  up  the  Valley  was  fourteen  miles  long ! — all 
of  which  fell  into  Jackson's  hands,  and  was  removed  to 
Staunton  to  furnish  supplies  for  the  Confederate  army. 
No  wonder  that  they  nicknamed  Banks  their  Commissary 
General!  But  Jackson's  work  was  not  over,  for  other 
forces  were  gathering  against  him.  McDowell  was  pre- 
paring to  cross  the  mountains  ;  while  Fremont,  who  had 
been  reinforced,  was  returning  to  the  attack,  so  that  Jack- 
son was  confronted  by  sixty  thousand  men  approaching 
from  opposite  quarters.  In  the  advance  of  such  forces  he 
fell  back  tiU  he  could  place  himself  between  the  two  ;  and 


THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY, 

Illustrating  Valley  Campaign 

OF 
'STONEWALL"  JACKSON, 

■•862.  J    I     // 

BY  JED.  HOTCHKISS,  T.  e. 


12      IC      20     24 


1.  Martinsburg. 

2.  Harper's  Feriy. 

3.  Charlestown. 

4.  Berryvllle. 
6.  Winchester. 

6.  Kemstown. 

7.  Middletown. 

8.  Front  Royal. 

9.  Strasburjf. 

10.  Woodstock. 

11.  New  Market. 

12.  Luray. 

13.  Conrad's  Stoi-e. 

14.  Harrisonburg. 
10.  Cross  Keys. 
16.  Port  Republic. 
17..  Mechum's  River. 

18.  Staunton. 

19.  McDowell. 
Franklin. 

21.  Dry  River  Gap. 

22.  Bridgewater. 

23.  Hagerstown. 

24.  Mt.  Jackson. 

73 


SCALE  OF  ENGLISH  STATUTE  MILES 


Struthere  Si  Co..  Engr'"ii  apj  Pr'.;  N.  Y. 


The  red  line  indicates  Jackson's  route,  the  arrows  shoinina  the  direction  taken. 


THE  VALLEY  CAMPAIGN.  283 

then,  facing  about  at  Cross  Keys,  he  gave  Fremont  a 
second  blow  as  stunning  as  the  first ;  and  the  very  next  day 
fought  an  equally  decisive  battle  with  McDowell's  advance, 
under  Shields,  at  Port  Republic.  This  was  the  famous 
"  Valley  Campaign,"  and  I  leave  it  to  the  students  of  both 
to  say,  if  there  was  anything  more  brilliant  in  the  ItaUan 
campaigns  of  the  First  Napoleon.* 

*  For  the  reader  who  wishes  to  study  this  wonderful  Cam- 
paign more  minutely,  Major  Hotchkiss  has  kindly  prepared  a 
Map  of  the  country,  with  lines  indicating  the  direction  of  Jack- 
son's movements,  showing  how  he  zigzagged  all  over  the  Valley, 
crossing  rivers  and  mountains,  to  the  widely  separated  points 
at  which  he  fought  his  battles.  The  following  note,  written  to 
accompany  the  Map,  gives  these  rapid  movements  more  in  detail 
than  they  could  be  given  in  the  text : 

Jackson  spent  the  Winter  of  1861-2  at  "Winchester,  holding  the 
line  of  the  Potomac,  on  the  north  bank  of  which,  at  Frederick 
City,  Marj'land,  lay  the  Federal  Army,  under  command  of  Gen. 
Banks,  which  began  a  forward  movement  Feb.  22d ;  crossing  the 
Potomac  at  Harper's  Ferry  on  the  24th,  and  appearing  March 
11th  in  the  vicinity  of  "Winchester,  Jackson  falling  back  towards 
"Woodstock.  Banks  followed  to  the  neighborhood  of  Strasburg, 
and  then  fell  back  and  established  his  headquarters  at  "Winchester. 
Learning  that  Banks  was  about  to  send  part  of  his  force  to  Mc- 
Clellan,  Jackson  advanced  towards  "Winchester,  and  fought  the 
battle  of  Kernstown,  March  23.  He  then  fell  slowly  back,  reach- 
ing the  vicinity  of  New  Market  on  the  2d  of  April,  Banks  follow- 
ing to  near  Mount  Jackson.  On  the  17th  Banks  advanced,  and 
Jackson  fell  back  to  Harrisonburg,  and  then  marching  around 
the  southwestern  end  of  the  Massanutton  Mountains,  and  across 
the  Shenandoah  Kiver,  established  himself  at  Conrad's  Store  on 
the  19th.  Banks's  next  move  was  to  Harrisonburg.  On  the  last 
day  of  the  month,  April  30th,  Jackson  moved  to  near  the  south- 
western end  of  the  Massanutton  Mountains,  and  offered  battle. 
"While  absent  from  his  camp  that  day,  Ewell's  Division  of  the 
Confederate  Army  came  across  the  Blue  Eidge  at  Swift  Eun  Gap, 
and  occupied  Jackson's  camp.  Jackson  returned  to  Conrad's 
Store,  and  then  turned  up  the  river  towards  Port  Eepublic, 
struggling  through  quicksands  and  mud  for  two  days  to  reach 


284  THE  VALLEY  CAMPAIGN. 

the  vicinity  of  that  village.  On  the  3d  of  May,  Jackson  crossed 
the  Blue  Eidge  at  Brown's  Gap,  apparently  abandoning  the  Val- 
ley, and  marched  to  Mecumk's  Eiver  Station  of  the  Virginia 
Central  Eailroad  (now  Chesapeake  and  Ohio),  where  his  troops 
took  the  cars  to  Staunton.  On  the  6th  he  advanced  to  the  top  of 
the  Big  North  Mountain,  on  the  way  to  McDowell,  and  the  next 
day  attacked  the  advance  of  Fremont's  army  at  Shenandoah 
Mountain,  and  the  day  after  that  fought  the  battle  of  McDowell, 
defeating  Fremont,  who  retreated  to  Franklin,  Jackson  following 
in  pursuit  till  the  11th.  The  next  day,  leaving  Fremont  at 
Franklin,  Jackson  turned  back,  and  reaching  McDowell  on  the 
14th,  marched  to  the  vicinity  of  Bridge  water  by  the  17th,  and 
on  the  19th  marched  down  the  valley  by  way  of  Harrisonburg 
(Banks  having  in  the  meantime  fallen  back  to  Strasburg),  reach- 
ing New  Market  on  the  21st,  where  he  turned  across  the  Massa- 
nutton  Mountains  to  the  vicinity  of  Luray,  where  Ewell's  Divis- 
ion joined  him.  Continuing  down  the  South  Fork  Valley,  he  fell 
on  Banks's  right  at  Front  Eoyal  on  the  23d,  routing  it,  and  cross- 
ing the  rivers  on  the  way  to  Middletown  and  "Winchester.  The 
next  day  he  attacked  Banks's  retreating  army  at  Middletown, 
following  it  all  night  to  "Winchester,  where  the  battle  of  "Win- 
chester was  fought  on  the  morning  of  May  25th,  and  Banks's 
army  defeated,  and  driven  across  the  Potomac  by  way  of  Mar- 
tinsburg.  Jackson's  advance  marched  to  the  vicinity  of  Har- 
per's Ferry,  where  it  remained  until  the  30th  of  May.  Threat- 
ened by  the  concentration  of  Fremont's  and  McDowell's  armies 
at  Strasburg,  Jackson  collected  his  army  southwest  of  that  place, 
June  1st,  in  a  strong  position.  As  the  Federal  Army  did  not 
attack  him,  he  fell  back  slowly  up  the  Valley,  reaching  Harrison- 
burg June  5th,  Fremont's  army  following,  and  McDowell's  march- 
ing up  the  valley  of  the  South  Fork  by  way  of  Luray.  Jackson 
fell  back  to  Cross  Keys,  and  awaited  Fremont's  advance,  which 
attacked  him  June  8th,  and  was  repulsed.  That  night  Jackson 
crossed  the  river  at  Port  Eepublic,  and  the  next  day  (June  9th) 
fought  the  battle  of  Port  Eepublic  with  McDowell's  advance,  at 
Lewiston,  four  miles  below  Port  Eepublic,  routing  it  completely. 
Jackson  then  encamped  between  the  rivers,  southwest  of  Port 
Eepublic,  near  the  famous  "Weyer's  Cave,  where  he  remained 
until  June  17th,  when  he  marched  for  Eichmond  to  form  the 
left  of  General  Lee's  army  in  his  attack  on  McClellan. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  BATTT.E.  285 

With  almost  any  other  leader,  this  incessant  motion 
would  only  have  brought  on  a  speedy  catastrophe  :  for  it 
would  have  set  his  brain  in  such  a  whirl,  that  he  would 
strike  at  random — uncertainly,  and  therefore  unsuccess- 
fully. But  in  these  rapid  marches  and  countermarches, 
with  constant  fighting,  he  never  lost  his  head.  Instead  of 
his  mind  being  confused  by  the  incidents  of  battle,  it  was 
quickened  to  the  utmost  intensity  of  action.  As  long  be- 
fore as  the  Mexican  war,  when  conversing  with  his  brother 
officers  as  to  the  effect  of  the  danger  of  battle  upon  their 
spirits,  he  said  that  to  him  "it  was  always  exalting,  and 
that  he  was  conscious  of  a  more  perfect  command  of  his 
faculties,  and  of  their  more  clear  and  rapid  action,  when 
under  fire,  than  at  any  other  time." 

One  who  had  frequent  occasion  to  see  Jackson  in  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  war,  speaks  thus  of  his  "  stoicism  "  : 

••Victory  and  defeat  were,  received  with  the  same  degree  of 
stolidity  and  unconcern.  He  never  seemed  elated  by  the  one, 
nor  depressed  by  the  other.  I  saw  him  at  the  battle  of  Antie- 
tam,  in  the  midst  of  the  carnage,  when  the  air  was  filled  with 
flying  shot  and  bursting  shells ;  and  he  sat  upon  his  horse  as 
unmoved  as  if  he  were  on  dress  parade.  As  the  Confederate 
losses  were  very  great,  Lee  ordered  a  retreat  across  the  Poto- 
mac— a  movement  which  was  a  very  critical  one,  as  a  swollen 
river  was  behind  us,  and  the  Federal  forces,  directed  by  Mc- 
Clellan  in  person,  were  pressing  us  in  front.  Every  moment 
added  to  the  confusion.  But  during  the  whole  scene  Jackson 
maintained  the  same  stoical  demeanor.  I  watched  his  face 
and  the  expression  of  his  eye.  He  gave  his  orders  just  as 
if  all  was  going  well,  betraying  no  despondency,  nor  even  any 
undue  excitement.  Again  I  have  seen  him  where,  as  in  his  last 
effort  at  Chancellorsville,  he  swept  everything  before  him.  But 
he  showed  no  more  elation  in  the  hour  of  victory  than  of  depres- 
sion in  the  hour  of  defeat.  He  contemplated  both  with  the 
complacency  of  a  Moslem,  as  if  he  were  a  child  of  destiny,  or 
rather  simply  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  to 
execute  His  will." 


286  HIS  STERN  DISCIPLINE. 

Some  wlio  are  disposed  to  be  critical  of  great  military 
achievements,  ascribe  tliis  marvellous  success,  not  to  the 
genius  of  Jackson,  so  much  as  to  the  weakness  of  those 
opposed  to  him  ;  and  indeed  it  is  hardly  probable  that 
he  would  have  "  careered  "  up  and  down  the  Valley  so 
triumphantly,  if  instead  of  Banks  and  Fremont,  he  had 
struck  Sheridan.  But  with  all  abatements,  it  must  be 
confessed  that  he  showed  a  wonderful  capacity  and  vigor. 

Of  course,  his  success  could  not  have  been  obtained 
without  rigid  military  discipline.  While  kind  to  his  men, 
he  would  tolerate  no  disobedience.  Once  on  a  march, 
fearing  lest  his  men  might  stray  from  the  ranks  and  com- 
mit acts  of  pillage,  he  had  issued  an  order  that  the  soldiers 
should  not  enter  private  dwellings.  Disregarding  the 
order,  a  soldier  entered  a  house,  and  even  used  insulting 
language  to  the  women  of  the  family.  This  was  reported 
to  Jackson,  who  had  the  man  arrested,  tried  by  drum-head 
court-martial,  and  shot  in  twenty  minutes ! 

Again,  three  men  had  deserted,  and  were  retaken  and 
sentenced  to  death.  Their  old  companions  made  every 
effort  to  save  them,  but  Jackson  was  inexorable.  To  an 
officer  who  petitioned  for  their  pardon,  he  answered  sharp- 
ly, "  You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself !  Here  are  my 
brave  men  exposing  their  Hves,  and  these  cowards  run 
away,  and  leave  their  comrades  to  fight  the  battle  alone." 
Then  the  chaplain  tried  a  religious  appeal,  telling  the  Gen- 
eral that  "  if  those  men  were  shot,  they  would  certainly  go 
to  hell !  "  "  That  is  my  business,"  said  Jackson  as  he 
turned  upon  him  with  disgust,  and  seizing  him  by  the 
shoulders,  literally  whirled  him  out  of  his  presence.  The 
men  were  shot  the  next  morning. 

Indeed  Jackson  was  perhaps  a  little  too  ready  in  these 
matters,  presenting  in  this  respect  a  contrast  to  Lee,  who 
was  always  disposed  to  leniency.     Once  they  were  riding 


RELIANCE  ON  THE  DIVINE  WILL.  281 

together,  when  some  cases  of  trespass  were  reported,  at 
which  Lee  said,  "  We  shall  have  to  shoot  some  of  these, 
fellows  yet."  Instantly  Jackson  caught  at  the  word,  and 
said,  "I  will  have  them  shot  to-morrow,"  to  which  his 
commander  answered  in  a  way  that  showed  that  he  did 
not  mean  to  be  taken  in  such  grim  earnest  as  to  order  his 
soldiers  to  immediate  execution. 

But  the  most  remarkable  thing  in  this  extraordinary 
man,  was  the  union  of  the  soldier  and  the  saint.  It  was 
no  ordinary  faith  that  had  possession  of  his  mind  :  he 
lived  and  moved  and  had  his  being  in  God.  No  Round- 
head of  Cromwell,  no  ancient  Crusader,  had  more  absolute 
assurance  that  he  was  simply  an  agent  of  the  Divine  wiU. 
One  who  knew  him  well,  says  that  "  he  was  always  praying 
when  he  was  not  fighting,"  two  things  which  seem  not  to  go 
together,  yet  that  have  been  combined  in  some  who  were 
at  once  great  soldiers  and  religious  fanatics.  Macaulay 
records  the  fanatical  enthusiasm  of  one  of  Cromwell's 
Roundheads  as,  bursting  out  in  a  kind  of  holy  frenzy,  he 
exclaimed  "  Oh  how  good  it  is  to  pray  and  fight !  "  So  was 
it  with  Stonewall  Jackson.  In  his  view,  a  human  being 
could  no  more  stand  in  the  way  of  a  Divine  decree  than  in 
the  path  of  one  of  his  own  cannon  balls.  Sufficient  for  him 
was  it  that  he  could  be  the  humble  agent  of  executing  the 
Almighty  will.  If  one  had  broken  in  upon  his  tent  before 
he  went  into  battle,  he  might  have  found  him  on  his  knees 
in  an  agony  of  prayer  that  God  would  give  him  the  vic- 
tory ;  those  who  rode  beside  him  on  the  march,  often 
observed  that  his  lips  were  moving  in  silent  pra3^er  i  and 
when  the  battle  was  won,  he  always  recognized  it  as  not 
by  his  own  wisdom  or  valor,  but  by  the  favor  of  that 
Almighty  Ruler  to  whom  he  bowed  again  in  humble 
thanksgiving. 

As  he  was  so  strict  in  his  own  religious  habits,  this 


288  HOW  HE  KEPT  SUNDAY. 

modem  Boundhead  kept  Sunday  in  the  camp  as  if  he  had 
been  at  home.  To  be  sure,  he  had  sometimes  to  fight  a 
battle  on  that  day,  but  in  that  case  he  made  it  up  by  keep- 
ing another  day  in  its  stead.  "  Sometimes,*'  said  the  Ma- 
jor, "  he  would  keep  two  or  three  Sundays  running,  to 
make  up  for  lost  time,  so  as  to  balance  the  account! " 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  day  we  were  riding  up  the 
Valley,  we  passed  a  beautiful  grove  which  recalled  some 
reminiscences  to  my  companion.  "  In  this  very  grove,"  he 
said,  "  we  spent  a  Sabbath  in  the  Summer  of  1862.  We 
had  divine  service,  and  all  was  as  still  as  in  any  Sabbath- 
keeping  village  of  New  England.  The  tents  were  pitched 
under  the  trees ;  and  the  soldiers  were  stretched  on  the 
ground,  resting  after  the  fatigues  of  their  long  marches 
and  hard  battles.  The  next  day  the  General  sat  ajpart, 
brooding  over  something  in  his  mind,  but  what  it  was  he 
communicated  to  no  one  :  for  he  never  told  his  plans  to 
anybody.  Not  a  word  did  he  whisper  to  me,  though  I 
shared  his  confidence  as  much  as  any  one,  and  we  often 
slept  under  the  same  blanket.  Towards  evening  he  sent 
for  me,  and  asked  to  see  the  maps  of  the  country  towards 
Staunton,  which  I  brought,  and  he  pored  over  them  a 
good  while,  and  then  said  carelessly,  *By  the  way,  they 
are  having  some  fighting  towards  Richmond  :  have  you 
any  maps  of  the  country  there  ? '  I  brought  them,  and  he 
looked  at  them,  but  without  any  sign  of  eagerness  or  mark 
of  peculiar  interest.  About  ten  that  night  he  called  me 
and  said,  *  Please  mount  your  horse  and  ride  to  such  a 

point  in  the  Valley,  and  tell  Colonel  M to  go  ahead ! ' 

It  was  pitch  dark  :  but  I  picked  my  way  over  the  blind 
roads,  till  about  midnight  I  reached  the  place,  and  deliv- 
ered the  order.  I  did  not  return  until  the  next  morning. 
About  nine  o'clock  I  reached  the  grove  in  which  we  had 
been  encamped  the  day  before,  but  not  a  soldier  was  to  be 


AT  CHANCELLORSVILLE,  289 

seen  I  Every  tent  had  been  struck ;  there  was  not  an 
army-waggon,  not  a  single  piece  of  artillery,  not  a  man, 
nor  a  gun.  An  army  of  20,000  men  had  vanished  as  com- 
pletely as  the  host  of  Sennacherib  when 

"The  might  of  the  Gentile,  unsmote  by  the  sword, 
Had  melted  like  snow  in  the  glance  of  the  Lord." 

It  was  all  a  riddle  and  a  mystery,  till,  when  it  was  ex- 
plained, it  was  seen  to  be  a  marvel  of  military  genius  and 
execution.  The  errand  of  my  friend  was  to  carry  an  order 
to  the  Colonel  who  was  left  in  command  in  the  Valley,  to 
make  a  demonstration  towards  Winchester,  to  keep  up 
the  impression  that  the  Valley  was  still  to  be  the  scene  of 
important  military  operations,  while  Jackson  executed  one 
of  his  astonishing  marches,  through  a  gap  in  the  mountains, 
and  when  next  heard  from  was  striking  the  right  wing  of 
McClellan's  army  advancing  towards  Richmond!  That 
flank  attack  was  the  blow  that  decided  the  fate  of  the 
Peninsula  Campaign. 

But  it  would  be  too  long  a  story  to  follow  him  in  all 
his  marches  and  battles.  The  Major  was  with  him  to  his 
last  and  greatest  victory  at  Chancellorsville  :  indeed  as 
topographical  engineer  he  had  studied  the  position,  and 
pointed  out  the  opportunity  which  it  presented  for  a 
great  flank  movement.  That  movement  decided  the  day, 
the  glory  of  which  Lee  justly  ascribed  to  the  "skill  and 
energy"  of  Jackson.  When  the  sun  set  on  that  day,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  Confederates  had  gained  a  victory  that 
might  end  the  war.  But  Jackson  never  left  a  success 
incomplete,  and  even  when  night  came  on,  and  one  could 
hardly  distinguish  friend  from  foe,  he  was  still  pressing  to 
the  fi'ont,  and  even  beyond  his  own  lines,  to  find  the  posi- 
tion of  the  enemy,  which  he  no  sooner  discovered  than  he 
ordered  a  new  line  of  battle  of  fresh  troops  to  be  formed 
for  immediate  action  ;  and  then  riding  back  with  his  staff 


290  THE  FLANK  MOVEMENT. 

and  escort  at  full  speed,  the  rush  of  horses  was  mistaken  by 
the  "  new  line  of  battle  "  that  had  been  thrown  across  the 
road  after  he  had  ridden  forward,  for  a  charge  of  cavalry, 
and  was  fired  upon  by  his  own  men.*    It  was  an  accident 

*An  officer  who  took  part  in  this  flank  movement,  gives  the 
following  account  of  what  passed  under  his  own  eyes,  and  of  the 
circumstances  of  Jackson's  death : 

"  On  Saturday  morning  General  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson  came 
and  sat  down  under  a  tree  near  where  I  was,  with  a  map  spread  out 
between  them.  [The  Major  was  one  of  that  group,  and  adds  yet 
more  minute  details  of  the  scene.  He  says:  "  Lee  and  Jackson  were 
seated  on  two  empty  cracker  boxes,  that  had  been  left  from  the  camp 
of  the  Federals,  which  had  been  pitched  there  the  day  before ;  while 
on  a  third  I  had  spread  out  a  map  that  I  had  prepared,  showing  the 
whole  position,  with  the  direction  of  every  road."]  General  Lee,  with 
a  pencil  in  hand,  explained  the  position,  and  Jackson  from  time  to 
time  nodded  assent,  at  the  close  of  which  Jackson  called  his  chief-of- 
stafif,  Major  Pendleton .  A  few  moments  later  the  troops  were  moving 
off  at  double-quick  in  an  entirely  unlooked-for  direction.  As  each 
regiment  passed,  Jackson  said  a  few  hurried  words  to  the  command- 
ing officer.  To  me  he  said :  '  Detail  a  strong  guard,  and  keep  your 
own  position  with  them  behind  your  men.  Bayonet  any  stragglers, 
and  keep  the  ranks  closed  up.'  In  addition  to  this  precaution,  he 
kept  a  squadron  of  cavalry  in  the  rear,  to  keep  the  men  up  in  the 
march.  Thus  urged  on,  the  column  moved  forward  silently  but 
rapidly  for  nine  miles,  with  only  three  halts  to  catch  breath. 

"  The  first  intimation  that  I  had  that  we  were  in  the  presence 
of  the  enemy,  was  the  sight  of  deserted  camp-fires,  dressed  beeves, 
coflfee-pots,  and  steaks  still  broiling  on  the  gridiron.  This  was  a 
tempting  sight  to  our  men,  who  were  always  poorly  fed  and  very 
hungry,  but  they  could  not  stop,  and  each  man  grabbed  what  he 
could  and  kept  on.  One  man  attempted  to  dispose  of  the  whole  of  a 
beefsteak  as  he  ran,  and  others  drank  at  double-quick  from  the 
spouts  of  steaming  coffee-pots. 

"  The  next  sight  which  greeted  us,  was  a  long  line  of  knapsacks 
stacked  up  in  piles  behind  the  Federal  rifle-pits,  in  front  of  which  had 


HE  IS  WOUNDED.  291 

that  might  have  happened  on  either  side  in  the  gathering 
gloom.  He  fell  from  his  horse  into  the  arms  of  one  of  his 
staff,  and  was  found  to  be  wounded  in  two  places,  in  his 
right  hand  and  in  his  left  arm.  3oth.  were  at  once  tied  up 
to  stop  the  flow  of  blood  ;  but  such  was  the  confusion  that 
it  was  some  time  before  a  stretcher  could  be  brought  to 
carry  him  to  the  rear,  where  he  could  receive  proper 
attention.  At  length  it  came,  and  the  bearers  raised  up 
their  beloved  chief,  but  had  gone  only  a  few  steps  when 
j^one  of  them  was  killed  by  a  shot  of  cannister  from  a 
Federal  battery,  and  he  was  thrown  to  the  ground  with  a 
violence  that  caused  him  intense  agony.  Again  he  was 
lifted  up  and  started  on  his  way.  Meanwhile  the  Major 
had  gone  for  the  surgeon,  Dr.  McGuire,  who  took  him  in 
an  ambulance  to  the  rear,  where  he  found  the  arm  so 
shattered  that  it  must  be  amputated  immediately,  to 
which  the  General  submitted  with  his  usual  fortitude. 

But  the   wound  was   considered  by  no   means  fatal. 
Nothing  was  needed  but  care  and  rest.     That  he   might 

been  left  a  line  of  Confederate  skirmishers  and  sharp-shooters,  to 
deceive  the  enemy  with  a  show  of  attack  in  front,  who  were  only  ap- 
prised of  the  change  of  base,  as  Jackson's  ubiquitous  and  irresistible 
•  Stonewall  Brigade '  came  charging  down  upon  them  from  the  rear  ! 
"  Towards  evening  I  had  deployed  my  regiment  as  skirmishers, 
when  a  squadron  of  Federal  cavalry  rode  right  into  our  midst,  and 
we  bagged  them  to  the  last  man.  Just  then  Jackson  rode  up  with  a 
few  staff  oflflcers,  and  said,  'Colonel,  fire  at  anything  that  comes  from 
that  direction ! '  This  order,  which  it  was  my  fortune  to  receive,  was 
the  last  Stonewall  Jackson  ever  gave.  He  then  rode  on  to  reconnoitre 
the  position  of  the  enemy.  Later  my  regiment  was  relieved  by  one  of 
the  North  Carolina  infantry,  to  whose  Colonel  I  repeated  Jackson's 
order.  In  a  few  moments  Jackson  and  his  staff  and  escort  came 
riding  back  rapidly,  and  the  men  of  this  regiment  mistook  them,  as  it 
was  then  dark,  for  another  squadron  of  Federal  cavalry,  and  fired ! " 


292  HIS  DEATH. 

be  away  from  the  noise  of  the  camp,  and  in  a  place  of 
safety,  he  was  carried  a  few  miles  across  the  country  to 
a  private  house  west  of  Fredericksburg,  near  Guiney's 
Station,  which  was  pointed  out  to  me  as  we  came  up  from 
Richmond.  Here  for  a  few  days  he  seemed  to  be  on  the 
road  to  recovery.  The  Major,  who  accompanied  him 
thither,  found  him  the  following  day  cheerful  and  hopeful. 
Indeed,  with  his  strong  religious  faith,  he  felt  that  he  could 
not  die,  for  he  was  sure  that  "  the  Lord  had  more  for  him 
to  do,"  and  he  fully  expected  to  get  well,  and  to  take  part 
in  the  campaign.  But  even  then  he  would  not  let  those 
around  him  pray  for  his  recovery,  except  in  entire  submis- 
sion to  the  Divine  wiU,  and  that  will  had  decreed  otherwise. 
The  shock  had  been  very  great  from  his  double  wound, 
with  the  loss  of  blood,  the  fall  from  the  litter,  and  the 
amputation ;  and  when,  after  all  this,  pneumonia  set  in, 
the  end  was  inevitable. 

It  was  on  the  Sabbath  day  that  he  saw  the  light  for  the 
last  time.  He  said  "I  have  always  desired  to  die  on 
Sunday,"  and  his  wish  was  granted.  The  sun  rose 
brightly  that  morning — the  tenth  of  May,  1863 — and 
though  he  had  been  told-  that  this  day  would  be  his  last, 
he  would  not  keep  his  chaplain  at  his  bedside,  but  insisted 
that  he  should  go  to  headquarters,  and  preach  as  usual. 
It  was  a  sorrowful  service,  for  all  hearts  were  bowed  with 
a  sense  of  the  great  loss  that  was  impending.  When  it 
closed,  General  Lee  inquired  eagerly  for  the  latest  news, 
and  when  told  that  Jackson  could  not  live  through  the 
day,  he  turned  away,  unable  to  control  his  emotion.  Even 
then  he  was  passing  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death.  He  still  breathed,  but  his  mind  was  wandering. 
Perhaps  a  gleam  from  the  river  of  life  caught  his  dying  eye, 
as  he  murmured  faintly,  "  Let  us  cross  over  the  river,  and 
rest  under  the  trees,"  and  the  strong,  brave  heart  stood  stilL 


BURIED  AT  LEXINGTON.  293 

The  death  of  Jackson  caused  universal  mourning 
throughout  the  Confederacy,  where  he  was  regarded  as  the 
greatest  of  the  Southern  leaders,  with  the  exception  only 
of  General  Lee.  It  took  away  all  the  exultation  of  Chan- 
cellorsville.  As  the  Commander-in-chief  himself  said, 
"Any  victory  would  be  too  dear  at  such  a  price."  It 
was  but  a  melancholy  consolation  to  pay  the  highest 
honors  to  his  memory.  The  body  was  borne  to  Richmond 
and  laid  in  state  in  the  Capitol,  where  tens  of  thousands 
thronged  to  look  for  the  last  time  on  the  face  that  they  had 
seen  so  often  amid  the  smoke  and  thunder  of  battle  ;  and 
then  they  carried  him  away  to  his  last  resting-place  among 
the  hills  which  he  so  much  loved.  Spending  Sunday  in 
Lexington,  I  went  to  the  church  where  Jackson  had  wor- 
shipped for  ten  years,  after  which  two  of  the  Professors 
who  had  been  associated  with  him,  took  me  to  the  spot 
where  he  rests.  It  is  on  a  hill-top,  looking  down  into  the 
peaceful  vaUey,  beyond  which  rise  the  everlasting  hills. 
"As  the  mountains  are  round  about  Jerusalem,"  so  are 
they  round  about  Lexington,  and  no  saint  or  soldier  could 
desire  a  better  spot  in  which  to  lie  down  and  sleep  till  the 
heavens  be  no  more. 

In  the  opinion  of  many  the  death  of  Jackson  was  a  fatal 
blow  to  the  Confederacy.  No  one  felt  the  loss  so  much  as 
General  Lee,  when  two  months  later,  he  fought  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  the  result  of  which  might  have  been  victory 
if  his  "  right  arm  "  had  not  been  taken  from  him.  But 
that  was  not  to  be.  The  Ruler  of  Nations  had  ordained  a 
different  issue — a  fact  which  we  have  to  recognize,  even  if 
we  cannot  explain.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  quite  so  far 
as  a  good  priest  of  New  Orleans,  an  ardent  Confederate,  a 
chaplain  of  one  of  Jackson's  Louisiana  regiments,  who  felt 
called  upon,  in  a  prayer  at  the  unveiling  of  a  monument  to 
Jackson,  to  offer  an  excuse  for  the  Almighty,  which  he  did 


294  HIS  DAUGHTER  LAID  BESIDE  HIM. 

in  this  remarkable  address  to  the  Throne  of  grace  :  "  When 
in  Thine  inscrutable  decree  it  was  ordained  that  the  Confed- 
eracy should  not  succeed,  it  became  necessary  for  Thee  to 
remove  Stonewall  Jackson  !  "  But  we  need  not  inquire  into 
the  purposes  of  Him  with  whom  are  the  issues  of  life  and 
death.  Without  attempting  what  does  not  belong  to  us, 
we  can  recognize  the  great  qualities  of  the  heroic  dead, 
and  on  this  day  of  peace,  beautiful  as  the  Sabbath  on 
which  he  died,  I  would  place  a  flower  on  the  grave  of 
Stonewall  Jackson. 

Six  months  passed,  and  I  visited  Lexington  again,  and 
once  more  turned  aside  to  stop  at  the  gate  of  the  old  Cem- 
etery, and  walked  along  the  path  trodden  by  so  many  feet, 
to  the  well  known  spot  which  attracts  so  many  pilgrims. 
I  found  beside  it  a  new  made  grave,  which  had  been  open- 
ed but  a  few  days  before  to  receive  the  only  daughter  of 
Stonewall  Jackson,  who  was  but  a  babe  when  her  father 
died,  and  was  brought  to  him  in  his  last  moments  to  be 
laid  upon  his  bed  to  receive  a  last  fond  caress.  Little 
seemed  it  then  that  she  would  be  with  him  again  so  soon. 
But  with  gentle  footsteps  she,  like  the  true  daughter  that 
she  was,  has  followed  him  tiU  she  too  has  "  passed  over  the 
river";  and  now  the  warrior  and  his  child,  forgetting  all 
the  sorrows  of  this  troubled  life,  "  rest  together  under  the 
trees  "  in  the  Paradise  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  GENERAL  LEE. 

"The  last  hope  of  the  Confederacy  was  dead  when 
Stonewall  Jackson  was  laid  in  his  grave  at  Lexington ! " 
So  said  the  Major  after  he  had  taken  the  greater  part  of  a 
day  in  detaihng  to  me,  to  my  intense  interest,  the  marvel- 
lous career  of  that  great  soldier.  But  not  so  reasoned  all 
those  who  had  fought  by  Jackson's  side.  Not  so  Jackson 
himself  :  for  when,  on  hearing  of  his  wound,  Lee  wrote  to 
him,  "  Could  I  have  directed  events,  I  should  have  chosen, 
for  the  good  of  the  country,  to  have  been  disabled  in  your 
stead,"  he  answered,  "  No,  no  !  Better  that  ten  Jacksons 
should  fall  than  one  Lee ! "  And  now,  though  Jackson 
was  dead,  Lee  still  lived,  and  hope  lived  with  him  ;  vic- 
tory was  still  possible  ;  and  in  that  faith,  and  under  that 
leadership,  the  Confederates  fought  on  for  two  years  more. 
(Jackson  died  on  the  10th  of  May,  1863  ;  but  Lee  did  not 
surrender  till  the  9th  of  April,  18G5. )  How  well  they  fought 
is  matter  of  history.  They  fought  as  they  could  not  have 
fought,  had  they  not  been  led  by  a  great  Commander. 
From  the  very  beginning  of  hivS  military  career,  all  around 
him  recognized  his  extraordinary  capacity.  General  Scott, 
with  whom  he  served  in  Mexico,  pronounced  him  "the  very 


296  THE  WAR  WAS  OVER. 

best  soldier  that  he  ever  saw  in  the  field."  But  the  greatest 
proof  of  his  ability  was  when  he  did  not  serve  under  any- 
body, but  planned  his  own  campaigns.  Some  military 
critics  I  know  assume  to  criticize  him  even  here.  To  such 
I  have  only  to  say  that  it  is  a  very  poor  compliment  to  our 
leaders  and  our  armies,  to  question  the  ability  of  one  who, 
with  less  than  half  the  numbers,*  kept  back  for  two  years 
the  tremendous  forces  of  the  North  that  were  pressing  in 
on  every  side.  "Whatever  others  may  say  of  General  Lee, 
the  great  soldiers  who  fought  against  him,  fully  concede 
his  splendid  military  genius. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  speak  of  his  military 
career.  That  belongs  to  history.  "  The  world  knows  it 
by  heart."  But  there  is  a  chapter  in  that  life  which  the 
world  does  not  know  so  well,  which  ought  to  be  told,  to 
the  greater  honor  of  the  illustrious  dead. 

The  war  was  over.  The  Northern  armies  had  returned 
victorious,  while  the  veterans  of  the  South,  defeated  but 
not  dishonored,  took  their  way  back  to  their  desolate 
homes.  The  army  disbanded  and  dispersed,  what  should 
its  leader  do?  His  old  ancestral  home,  standing  on  that 
noble  height  which  looks  down  on  the  Potomac,  and 
across  to  the  dome  of  the  Capitol,  was  in  the  hands  of 
those  against  whom  he  had  been  fighting  for  four  years, 
and  had  even  been  turned  into  a  national  cemetery,  in 
which  slept  thousands  of  the  Union  dead,  whose  very 
ghosts  might  rise  up  against  his  return.  But  if  he  was  an 
exile  from  his  own  home,  there  were  thousands  of  others 

♦When  the  surrender  took  place,  almost  the  first  question 
which  General  Meade  asked  General  Lee,  was  '*  How  many 
men  had  you  at  Petersburg  and  in  your  lines,  when  they  were 
broken  ?  "  "Forty  thousand,"  was  the  reply.  "  I  am  amazed," 
said  Meade,  "and  could  not  believe  it,  it  it  were  not  you  that 
said  it." 


HE  CLINGS  TO  VIRGINIA.  29t 

open  to  liim  all  over  the  South,  and  across  the  sea,  where 
his  fame  had  gone  before  him,  and  would  have  made  him 
a  welcome  guest  in  princely  halls.  But  such  a  flight  from 
his  country  (for  so  he  would  have  regarded  it)  was  impos- 
sible to  one  of  his  chivalrous  spirit.  He  had  cast  in  his 
lot  with  his  people  :  they  had  believed  in  him  and  followed 
him,  as  they  thought,  to  certain  triumph  ;  he  would  not 
desert  them  in  the  day  of  their  adversity. 

Of  course,  had  he  be^n  willing  to  listen  to  them,  he 
could  have  received  any  number  of  "business"  proposals. 
Rich  moneyed  corporations  would  have  been  glad  to  "re- 
tain "  him  at  any  price  as  President  or  Director,  so  that 
they  could  have  the  benefit  of  his  great  name.  One,  it  is 
said,  offered  him  $50,000  a  year.  But  he  was  not  to  be 
allured  by  such  temptations.  The  very  fact  that  they  were 
coupled  with  offers  of  money,  was  reason  enough  why  he 
should  reject  them  all,  as  he  did  without  a  moment's  hesi- 
tation. Nor  could  he  be  lured  by  any  military  proposals. 
Maximilian  offered  to  place  him  at  the  head  of  his  army  if 
he  would  go  to  Mexico,  thinking  that  his  genius  might  save 
the  fortunes  of  the  falling  empire.  But  he  would  not  accept 
any  exile,  however  splendid.  His  answer  was  "  I  love  the 
mountains  of  Virginia  still."  His  work  must  be  at  home, 
for  work  he  must  have.  After  his  active  life  he  could  not 
sink  down  into  idleness.  With  his  military  career  ended, 
he  must  find  a  new  career  in  civil  life.  Besides,  he  had  a 
proud  spirit  of  independence,  which  would  not  permit  him 
to  live  on  the  bounty  of  the  rich  at  home,  or  the  titled 
abroad.  He  would  "work  for  a  living,"  like  the  poorest 
of  his  soldiers. 

At  length  came  a  proposal  that  seemed  most  alien  to 
his  former  pursuits  :  that  the  Commander  of  the  Southern 
Armies  should  become  the  President  of  a  College !  And 
yet  this  change  from  a  military  to  an  academic  career,  was 


298  COMES  TO  LEXINGTON. 

not  so  violent  as  it  might  seem.  He  had  been  for  three 
years  Superintendent  of  the  Military  Academy  at  West 
Point,  where  he  was  associated  with  young  men,  an  inti- 
macy which  was  continued  during  the  whole  period  that 
he  was  in  the  army.  He  was  at  home  among  students, 
for  he  had  been  a  student,  and  gone  through  all  the 
stages  of  scholarly  discipline.  Besides,  the  position  of  the 
College  to  which  he  was  invited,  in  Lexington,  Virginia, 
was  attractive  to  him.  It  was  remote  from  cities,  among 
the  mountains,  and  yet  within  the  limits  of  that  Old 
Dominion  which  he  looked  upon  as  his  mother. 

"When  it  was  known  that  he  had  accepted  the  position, 
his  coming  was  looked  for  with  great  eagerness  by  the 
people  of  Lexington ;  but  he  did  not  fix  the  time,  as  he 
wished  to  avoid  any  public  demonstration.  But  it  had 
been  arranged  that  when  he  came,  he  should  spend  a  few 
days  in  the  hospitable  dwelling  in  which  I  was  so  fortunate 
as  to  be  a  guest.  While  thus  in  expectancy,  the  Professor 
was  one  day  taking  a  walk,  when  he  saw  riding  up  the 
street  a  figure  that  he  instantly  recognized  as  the  same 
that  had  been  so  often  seen  at  the  head  of  the  army ;  and 
to  make  the  picture  perfect,  he  was  mounted  on  his  old 
war-horse — a  magnificent  iron-gray  called  "Traveller" — 
that  had  so  often  borne  his  master  through  the  smoke  of 
battle.  He  wore  no  military  uniform,  nor  sign  of  rank, 
but  a  light  Summer  dress,  while  a  broad  Panama  hat 
shaded  a  face  that  no  one  could  mistake.  Advancing 
towards  him,  the  Professor  told  of  the  arrangements  for 
his  entertainment  till  he  could  be  established  in  a  house 
for  himself,  and  led  the  way  to  his  home. 

Naturally  my  friend's  family  were  at  first  somewhat 
awed  by  the  presence  of  their  illustrious  guest.  But  this 
was  soon  dissipated  by  his  simple  and  unaffected  manner. 
What  "  broke  the  ice "  most  completely  was  his  manner 


PRESIDENT  OP  A  COLLEGE.  299 

with  the  children.  He  was  always  very  fond  of  the  little 
people,*  and  as  soon  as  they  appeared,  "Uncle  Robert," 
as  he  was  affectionately  called  in  the  army,  had  them  in 
his  arms  and  on  his  knees,  till  they  soon  felt  perfectly  at 
home  with  him.  They  "  captured  "  him  at  once,  and  he 
"  captured "  them,  and  in  this  captured  their  parents  also. 
From  that  moment  all  constraint  disappeared,  though 
nothing  could  ever  take  from  the  profound  respect  and 
veneration  with  which  they  looked  up  to  "  General  Lee." 

This  was  in  September,  1865,  and  on  the  2d  of  October, 
after  solemn  prayer  by  the  venerable  Dr.  "White,  he  took 
the  oath  of  office,  as  required  by  the  laws  of  the  College, 
and  thus  became  its  President.  Naturally  his  name  drew 
great  numbers  of  students,  not  only  from  Virginia,  but 
from  all  parts  of  the  South,  who  were  eager  to  "serve" 
under  such  a  leader,  and  the  number  of  undergraduates 
rose  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  to  over  four  hundred. 

From  this  some  may  imagine  that  he  was  expected  to 
be,  and  that  he  was,  a  mere  figure-head  to  the  Institution. 
No  mistake  could  be  greater.  From  the  moment  that  he 
took  the  office,  he  applied  himself  to  its  duties  with  con- 
scientious fidelity.  He  did  not  teach  in  the  classes,  though 
he  might  have  taught  in  any  department,  for  he  was  an 
excellent  scholar,  both  in  classics  and  in  mathematics ;  but 
like  a  good  soldier,  he  wished  to  take  his  place  where  he 
could  be  the  most  useful,  and  clearly  his  office  was  that  of 
general  superintendence.  He  visited  all  the  class-rooms, 
not  in  regular  course,  but  coming  when  not  expected,  and 
followed  each  professor  in  his  lecture,  generally  asking 

*  This  love  of  children,  and  other  domestic  traits,  are  very 
beautifully  depicted  in  an  article  in  the  Century  Magazine  for 
June,  1889,  by  Mrs.  Margaret  J.  Preston,  a  personal  friend  as 
well  as  neighbor  of  General  Lee  during  all  the  time  of  his  resi- 
dence in  Lexington. 


300  HIS  GENTLENESS  IN  REBUKE. 

some  questions  at  the  close.  He  informed  himself  of  the 
standing  of  each  student,  and  the  rules  of  study  were  as 
rigid  as  mihtary  discipline,  the  alternative  being  "  study  or 
the  plough"!  If  any  college  boy  was  idle,  or  disposed  to 
shirk  his  books,  he  was  summoned  to  the  President's  office 
for  a  gentle  admonition — so  gentle  indeed,  that  when  he 
came  away,  his  fellow  students  were  apt  to  say,  "  "Who  said 
'Good-morning'  first?" — that  is,  "Did  you  know  when 
General  Lee  was  done  with  you  ?  " 

One  gift  he  had  which  stood  him  in  good  stead  at  the 
head  of  a  College  as  at  the  head  of  an  army:  he  understood 
in  perfection  the  art  of  administering  rebuke  in  a  way  to 
be  effective,  and  yet  not  to  leave  too  deep  a  sting.  In  this 
there  could  be  no  greater  difference  between  two  men  than 
there  was  between  Lee  and  Jackson,  which  had  frequent 
illustration  in  the  army  in  the  way  they  showed  their  dis- 
pleasure at  one  particular  form  of  rudeness.  I  hope  it  will 
not  be  set  down  as  a  mark  of  disloyalty  to  their  native 
State,  that  they  did  not  pay  tribute  to  its  chief  staple, 
tobacco,  which  neither  of  them  took,  or  could  tolerate,  in 
any  form.  Both  had  a  positive  dislike  to  it,  which  they 
did  not  hesitate  to  express,  though  each  in  a  characteristic 
way.  If  an  officer  came  into  Jackson's  presence,  puffing 
the  smoke  of  a  cigar  in  his  face,  he  was  very  likely  to  get 
a  rough  salutation,  which  sent  him  to  the  right  about  in 
double  quick  time,  and  taught  him  better  manners  in  the 
future.  But  General  Lee  could  not  administer  a  rebuke 
except  in  a  courtly  way.  If  an  officer  rode  up  to  deliver  a 
message,  or  in  military  phrase,  to  make  a  report,  and  the 
General  perceived  that  he  had  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  or 
even  in  his  hand,  he  would  not  mortify  him  by  a  sharp 
thrust,  but  turn  the  point  of  his  own  rapier  by  a  compli- 
ment. If,  on  a  glance  at  the  shoulder-straps  of  the  new 
comer,  he  perceived  that  he  was  a  Major,  he  would  address 


HIS  INFLUENCE  OVER  YOUNG  MEN.  301 

him  as  "  Colonel,"  thus  putting  him  a  peg  higher  in  mili- 
tary rank,  and  then  add  in  his  blandest  manner,  as  if  to 
relieve  him  from  embarrassment,  "  I  will  excuse  you  till 
you  have  finished  your  cigar,"  a  gentle  reminder  that  he 
had  forgotten  the  courtesy  diie  to  his  superior,  which, 
while  it  did  not  wound  his  pride  so  openly,  touched  his 
sense  of  propriety  not  less  than  the  blunt  and  somewhat 
scornful  reprimand  of  Stonewall  Jackson. 

In  one  respect  his  influence  was  immeasurable.  Every 
man  in  the  South  looked  up  to  General  Lee  as  the  highest 
type  of  manhood,  and  his  very  presence  was  an  inspiration. 
This  is  the  influence  which  young  men  feel  more  than  any 
other — that  inspired  by  intense  admiration — an  influence 
that  would  have  been  very  potent  for  evil  if  the  object  of 
their  admiration  had  been  merely  a  great  soldier,  dazzling 
them  by  his  genius,  but  destitute  of  high  principle.  Had 
that  been  the  case,  his  influence  would  have  been  as 
demoralizing  as  now  it  was  elevating,  since  his  superiority 
in  all  other  respects  was  united  with  a  character  that  was 
so  gentle  and  so  good. 

That  he  might  reach  the  young  men  in  College,  he 
sought  their  acquaintance,  instead  of  standing  apart  in  icy 
dignity.  Prof.  White  tells  me  that,  if  they  were  walking 
together  in  the  grounds,  and  a  student  was  seen  approach- 
ing, he  would  ask  who  he  was,  and  when  he  came  up, 
instead  of  passing  him  with  a  stiff  and  stately  bow,  would 
stop  and  call  him  by  name,  and  ask  about  his  family  and 
his  studies,  and  speak  a  few  words  of  encouragement, 
which  the  young  man  would  not  forget  to  his  dying  day. 
To  be  under  the  authority  and  influence  of  such  a  man, 
was  an  education  in  manliness.  There  was  not  a  student 
who  did  not  feel  it,  and  to  whom  it  was  not  the  highest 
ambition  to  be  guided  by  such  a  leader,  to  be  infused  with 
his  spirit,  and  to  follow  his  example. 


302  IMPORTANCE  GIVEN  TO  RELIGION. 

From  the  first  lie  attached  great  importance  in  a-ny 
system  of  education  to  Religion.  He  was  himself  a  devout 
member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  no  one  was  more 
regular  in  attendance  on  its  services.  No  one  knelt  with 
more  humility  in  the  house  of  God,  or  responded  more 
fervently  to  the  prayers.  But  it  was  not  merely  because 
he  found  his  own  personal  comfort  in  this  faith  or  worship 
that  he  desired  it  for  others.  He  believed  that  Religion 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  that  is  worthy  to  be  called 
character.  In  his  long  mihtary  life,  which  was  of  neces- 
sity a  public  one,  he  had  seen  a  great  deal  of  men  of  the 
world — men  of  society,  men  of  fashion — and  he  knew 
how  all  this  outward  grace  might  cover  the  meanest  self- 
ishness and  the  blackest  heart.  He  had  come  to  feel  more 
and  more  that  one  could  not  be  truly  great  who  was  not 
truly  good  ;  that  life  was  not  given  for  pleasure  only,  but 
that  it  had  grave  responsibilities  ;  and  he  wished  his 
young  men  to  recognize  that  they  had  duties  to  others  as 
well  as  to  themselves,  and  that  the  truest  heroism  was  in 
self-forgetfulness  and  self-denial.  This  type  of  character, 
he  knew,  could  not  be  formed  on  mere  sentiment :  it  could 
be  inspired  only  by  a  profound  religious  faith  ;  and  so  he 
esteemed  it  as  above  all  science  to  "know  God."  If  he 
had  been  the  College  pastor,  he  could  not  have  been  more 
earnest  that  his  large  household  should  be  infused  with 
spiritual  life  ;  and  hence  he  often  expressed  to  the  pastors 
of  the  churches  around  him  his  desire  for  "  a  revival "  in 
the  College  ;  that  the  young  men  should  go  out,  not  only 
thoroughly  educated,  but  having  in  them  the  elements  of 
a  strong  religious  character. 

Soon  after  he  came  to  Lexington  a  house  was  built  for 
him  in  the  row  of  the  College  buildings.  It  is  a  very  plain 
brick  house,  with  nothing  pretentious  without  or  within. 
Here  he  lived  the  life  of  a  modest  country  gentleman, 


HIS  CAUTION  IN  SPEAKING  OF  OTHERS.  303 

seldom  going  away  from  home,  and  then  only  to  the  White 
Sulphur  Springs,  or  some  other  quiet  resting  place.  Now 
and  then  he  paid  a  visit  to  his  old  home  in  Richmond,  and 
once  or  twice  to  Baltimore.  Once  he  was  called  to  "Wash- 
ington to  give  testimony  before  a  Committee  of  Congress, 
when  he  was  received  by  General  Grant,  who  was  then 
President,  with  the  distinction  which  belonged  to  him. 
But  he  never  went  North,  and  indeed  with  these  excep- 
tions, scarcely  went  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own  beloved 
Virginia.  Accustomed  in  the  field  to  the  saddle,  he  still 
loved  the  exercise,  and  was  often  seen  riding  over  the  hills 
around  Lexington,  either  alone,  or  accompanied  by  one  of 
his  daughters.  He  was  fond  of  plain  country  people,  and 
delighted  to  rein  up  by  the  roadside,  and  talk  with  the 
farmers  about  their  farms  and  their  crops  ;  and  no  painter 
or  poet  could  enjoy  more  intensely  the  beauties  of  nature, 
the  hills  and  valleys,  the  woods  and  waters,  the  sun-risings 
and  sun-settings. 

Of  course,  wherever  he  went  he  was  an  object  of  curi- 
osity, and  sometimes  it  required  all  his  tact  to  parry  the 
advances  of  those  who  intruded  upon  him.  Some  with 
more  eagerness  than  politeness,  asked  him  questions  about 
his  battles,  even  his  opinion  of  the  officers  who  served 
under  him,  or  those  who  fought  against  him.  To  such 
questions  he  always  made  a  courteous  reply,  even  while 
avoiding  a  direct  answer,  for  while  he  was  too  modest  to 
speak  of  himself  and  what  he  had  done,  he  was  very  reti- 
cent in  speaking  of  other  militaiy  men  in  either  army. 
He  knew  that  whatever  fell  from  his  lips  would  be  repeat- 
ed, and  not  always  as  he  said  it,  but  with  a  change  of 
words,  or  in  a  different  tone  of  voice,  that  might  give  it 
quite  another  meaning.  Indeed  with  all  his  caution,  he 
was  often  quoted  as  saying  what  he  did  not  say.  As  an 
illustration,  Prof.  White  told  me  that  a  story  had  gone  the 


304  HE  WRITES  NO  MEMOIRS. 

rounds  of  the  papers  to  the  effect  that  in  a  conversation 
Gen.  Lee  had  brought  his  clenched  hand  down  on  the  table, 
to  give  emphasis  to  his  utterance,  as  he  said,  "  If  I  had  had 
StonewaU  Jackson  with  me  I  should  have  won  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg  and  established  the  Southern  Confederacy!" 
"Now,"  said  the  Professor,  "without  ever  asking  him,  I 
know  that  such  an  occurrence  never  took  place,  for  in  the 
first  place  General  Lee  never  'brought  his  hand  down  on 
the  table ' — he  was  not  that  sort  of  man — it  is  impossible 
to  conceive  of  him  as  using  any  violence  of  gesture  or  of 
language.  And  as  to  Stonewall  Jackson,  w^hile  he  did  feel 
keenly  the  absence  of  that  great  corps-commander,  he  was 
not  the  man  to  indulge  in  sweeping  and  positive  state- 
ments ;  he  never  spoke  with  such  absolute  assurance  of 
anything,  but  always  with  a  degree  of  reserve,  as  once 
when  we  were  riding  together,  he  said  in  his  usual  guard- 
ed and  cautious  manner  :  *  If  I  had  had  Stonewall  Jackson 
with  me — so  far  as  man  can  see — ^I  should  have  won  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg.'  So  careful  was  he  to  put  in  this 
qualification :  for  he  always  recognized  an  overruling 
Power  that  may  disappoint  the  wisest  calculations,  and 
defeat  the  most  careful  combinations  of  courage  and  skill." 
To  the  same  habit  of  reserve  we  must  ascribe  it,  at 
least  in  part,  that  he  never  wrote  anything  in  regard  to  his 
own  military  career.  The  friend  to  whom  I  have  referred 
so  often.  Major  Jed.  Hotchkiss,  writes  me  that  "  it  was  the 
intention  of  General  Lee  to  write  his  '  Memoirs,'  following 
the  example  of  his  father,  'Light  Horse  Harry'  of  the 
Revolution ;  but  that  his  private  papers  were  all  burned 
by  a  foolish  guard,  who  was  left  in  charge  of  his  waggon, 
and  who,  when  it  was  about  to  be  captured,  set  fire  to 
it,  thus  destroying  the  records  which  would  furnish  the 
most  accurate  information.  Still  he  did  not  relinquish 
his  purpose,  but  began  collecting  materials  for  it,  and  ask- 


A  GREAT  LOSS  TO  HISTORY.  305 

ed  me  to  prepare  the  maps  to  illustrate  his  campaigns.  I 
went  to  Washington  for  him  to  get  copies  of  his  reports 
from  the  captured  archives,  but  they  would  not  let  him 
have  them  then  ;  and  afterwards,  when  they  were  more 
willing,  his  health  had  given  way,  and  it  was  too  late." 
This  is  a  great  loss  to  history.  Of  course  whatever  papers 
were  captured  at  Eichmond,  and  transferred  to  AVashing- 
ton,  may  still  be  preserved  to  furnish  the  materials  of 
history.  But  it  is  not  the  same  thing  to  have  these  materi- 
als "worked  up"  by  some  future  historian,  as  to  have 
them  used  by  the  very  man  who  dictated  these  orders  and 
despatches.  There  is  a  fascination  in  the  story  of  a  great 
war  told  by  one  who  was  a  chief  actor  in  it.  Csesar  wrote 
his  own  Commentaries  :  and  the  conversations  of  Napoleon 
at  St.  Helena  furnish  invaluable  materials  for  the  history 
of  that  great  soldier.  So  with  our  General  Grant.  No 
man  was  more  modest,  or  more  reserved  and  shy,  and  it 
was  only  the  pressure  of  sudden  disaster  overwhelming 
his  household  that  forced  our  Ulysses  the  SUent  to  break 
through  his  accustomed  reserve,  and  tell  a  story  that, 
though  told  with  a  soldier-like  simplicity,  is  of  marvellous 
interest.  So  it  would  have  been  a  priceless  contribution 
to  history  if  we  could  have  had  the  other  side  of  our  civil 
war  told  by  the  pen  of  General  Lee.  Had  he  but  opened 
his  lips,  the  whole  world  would  have  Hstened  to  the  thrill- 
ing story.  But  he  may  well  have  been  reluctant,  not  alone 
because  of  want  of  materials  or  failing  health,  but  also 
because  it  would  bring  back  too  many  painful  memories. 
Even  a  soldier's  courage  might  hesitate  to  renew  the  an- 
guish that  was  being  softened  by  time  ;  to  call  up  again 
the  hopes  and  feai'S  that  belonged  to  what  was  irrevocably 
past.  And  if  he  had  written,  he  would  have  had  to  pass 
judgment  on  his  old  companions-in-arms,  the  living  and 
the  dead — an  ungrateful  task,  from  which  he,  with  his  ex- 


306  HIS  HOME  IN  LEXINGTON. 

treme  reluctance  to  give  pain,  might  well  shrink.    And  so 
he  died  and  made  no  sign. 

With  all  this  in  mind,  I  went  to  the  house  where  he 
lived  and  died.  It  is  occupied  by  his  son.  General  Custis 
Lee,  who  succeeded  him  as  President  of  the  College — a 
man  of  such  extreme  modesty  that  only  those  who  know 
him  intimately  know  his  real  worth  :  how  much  there  is  in 
him  of  his  illustrious  father.  I  had  a  letter  to  him  from 
the  Hon.  John  Eandolph  Tucker,  and  he  received  me  with 
great  kindness,  and  showed  me  the  house,  which,  plain  as 
it  is,  has  its  treasures.  As  he  is  the  great-grandson  of  Mrs. 
Custis,  who  after  the  death  of  her  first  husband  became 
the  wife  of  Washington,  he  has  inherited  many  household 
articles  which  belonged  to  the  Father  of  his  Country — 
the  old  family  plate  on  the  side-board,  and  the  old  family 
pictures  hanging  on  the  wall.  But  of  even  more  interest  is 
whatever  is  connected  with  General  Lee  —  the  home  in 
which  he  lived  for  five  years — the  chamber  in  which  he 
slept ;  the  library  in  which  he  received  his  friends ;  the 
books  around  him  ;  the  table  at  which  he  wrote  ;  and  the 
dining-room  in  which  he  died ;  for  it  was  here,  while 
standing  at  the  head  of  his  table,  in  the  very  act  of  asking 
a  blessing,  that  he  received  the  fatal  stroke.  As  he  sank 
into  his  chair,  those  around  him  caught  him  and  raised 
him  up,  and  brought  a  bed  and  placed  him  upon  it,  but 
did  not  attempt  to  carry  him  to  his  room.  Here  he  lay 
for  two  weeks,  between  life  and  death,  saying  but  little, 
though  conscious  apparently  that  the  end  was  approach- 
ing. One  who  watched  with  him.  Colonel  Preston  John- 
ston, has  described  the  scene,  as  he  "  lay  in  the  darkened 
room,  with  the  lamp  and  the  hearth-fire  casting  shadows 
upon  his  noble  face,"  so  calm  and  peaceful  with  the  greater 
shadow  that  now  rested  upon  it.  "Once  in  the  solemn 
watches  of  the  night,"  he  says,  "when  I  handed  him  the 


HIS  DEATH  :    RECUMBENT  STATUE.  301 

prescribed  nourishment,  he  turned  upon  me  with  a  look  of 
friendly  recognition,  and  then  cast  down  his  eyes  with 
such  a  sadness  in  them  as  I  can  never  forget.  But  he 
spoke  not  a  word  :  not  because  he  was  unable — for  at  times 
he  did  speak  brief  sentences  with  distinct  enunciation* — 
but  because  he  saw  (before  the  family  or  friends  or  physi- 
cian) the  portals  of  death  opening  to  him,  and  chose  to 
wrap  himself  in  an  unbroken  silence  as  he  went  down  to 
enter  them."  Thus  he  lingered  till  on  the  morning  of  the 
12th  of  October,  1870,  the  tolling  bells  announced  to  the 
sorrowing  community  that  he  had  breathed  his  last. 

From  the  house  it  is  but  a  few  rods  across  the  College 
grounds  to  the  chapel,  in  the  rear  of  which  is  a  recess, 
where  lies  a  recumbent  statue  of  the  great  leader.  It  is 
in  marble,  and  represents  the  soldier  at  full  length,  as  we 
have  seen  in  old  cathedrals  the  bronze  effigies  of  those 
whose  crossed  limbs  tell  how  they  took  up  arms  for  the 
Cross,  and  fought  for  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
at  Jerusalem.  But  it  is  no  mailed  Crusader  that  is 
stretched  upon  the  tomb  :  for  the  hand  that  once  grasped 
the  sword,  is  folded  on  the  breast,  and  the  whole  impres- 
sion is  one  of  profound  repose.  It  is  a  heroic  figure,  full 
of  strength,  as  of  a  warrior  taking  his  rest,  and  yet  over  all 
there  is  an  expression  of  calm,  as  of  one  with  whom  the 
battle  of  life  is  over ;  who  hears  no  more  the  morning 
drum-beat  or  the  trumpet's  call : 

**  He  sleeps  his  last  sleep ;  he  has  fought  his  last  battle ; 
No  sound  shall  awake  him  to  glory  again." 

♦This  was  probably  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  illness,  or  if 
later,  could  only  have  been  at  intervals,  for  General  Custis  Lee, 
who  was  constantly  at  his  father's  bedside,  says  that  he  "  made 
repeated  efforts  to  speak  to  him,  but  could  not  from  utter  ex- 
haustion and  weakness."  So  it  was  that  the  wave  of  life  kept 
moving  to  and  fro,  sometimes  being  strong  enough  for  utter- 
ance, and  then  ebbing  too  fast  for  the  lips  to  move. 


308  THE  CHARACTER  OF  LEE. 

While  standing  here,  in  the  very  presence  of  death, 
I  am  moved  to  say  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  life  that 
ended  in  this  tomb,  and  the  character  of  the  man  whose 
name  it  bears.  As  I  read  history,  and  compare  the 
men  who  have  figured  in  the  events  that  make  history 
— in  wars  and  revolutions — it  seems  to  me  that  General 
Lee  was  not  only  a  great  soldier,  but  a  great  man,  one  of 
the  greatest  that  our  country  has  produced.  After  his 
death,  the  College  which  had  hitherto  borne  the  name  of 
"Washington,  by  whom  it  was  endowed,  was  re  christened 
"  Washington  and  Lee  University  " — a  combination  which 
suggests  a  comparison  of  the  two  men  whose  names  are 
here  brought  together.  Can  we  trace  any  likeness  between 
them  ?  At  first  it  seems  as  if  no  characters,  as  well  as  no 
careers,  could  be  more  alien  to  each  other,  than  those  of 
the  two  great  leaders,  one  of  whom  was  the  Founder  of 
the  Government  which  the  other  did  his  utmost  to  destroy. 
But  nature  brings  forth  her  children  in  strange  couples, 
with  resemblances  in  some  cases  as  marked,  and  yet  as 
unexpected,  as  are  contrasts  in  others.  Washington  and 
Lee,  though  born  in  different  centuries,  were  children  of 
the  same  mother.  Old  Virginia,  and  had  her  best  blood 
in  their  veins.  Descended  froin  the  stock  of  the  English 
Cavaliers,  both  were  born  gentlemen,  and  never  could  be 
anything  else.  Both  were  trained  in  the  school  of  war, 
and  as  leaders  of  armies  it  would  not  be  a  violent  assump- 
tion to  rank  Lee  as  the  equal  of  Washington.  But  it  is  not 
in  the  two  soldiers,  but  in  the  two  men,  that  the  future 
historian  will  find  points  of  resemblance. 

Washington  was  not  a  brilliant  man  ;  not  a  man  of 
genius,  such  as  now  and  then  appears  to  dazzle  mankind ; 
but  he  had  what  was  far  better  than  genius— a  combina- 
tion of  all  the  qualities  that  win  human  trust ;  in  which 
intelligence  is  so  balanced  by  judgment,  and  exalted  by 


HIS  MAGNANIMITY.  309 

character,  as  to  constitute  a  natural  superiority ;  indicat- 
ing one  who  is  born  to  command,  and  to  whom  all  men 
turn,  when  their  hearts  are  "  failing  them  for  fear,"  as  a 
leader.  He  was  great  not  only  in  action,  but  in  repose  : 
great  in  his  very  calm — in  the  fortitude  with  which  he  bore 
himself  through  all  changes  of  fortune,  through  dangers 
and  disasters,  neither  elated  by  victory  nor  depressed  by 
defeat — mental  habitudes  which  many  will  recognize  as 
reappearing  in  one  who  seems  to  have  formed  himself 
upon  that  great  model. 

Washington  was  distinguished  for  his  magnanimity,  a 
virtue  in  which  no  one  more  closely  followed  him  than  Lee. 
Men  in  public  station  are  apt  to  be  sensitive  to  whatever 
concerns  their  standing  before  the  world;  and  so,  while  tak- 
ing to  themselves  the  credit  of  success,  they  are  strongly 
tempted  to  throw  upon  others  the  blame  of  failure.  Sol- 
diers especially  are  jealous  of  their  rei)utation ;  and  if  a 
commander  loses  a  battle,  his  first  impulse  is  to  cast  the 
odium  of  defeat  upon  some  unfortunate  officer.  Some- 
body blundered ;  this  or  that  subordinate  did  not  do  his 
duty.  Military  annals  are  filled  with  these  recriminations. 
If  Napoleon  met  with  a  check  in  his  mighty  plans,  he  had 
no  scruple  in  laying  it  to  the  misconduct  of  some  lieuten- 
ant, unless  as  in  Kussia,  he  could  throw  it  upon  the  ele- 
ments, the  wintry  snows  and  the  frozen  rivers — anything 
to  relieve  himself  from  the  imputation  of  the  want  of 
foresight,  or  provision  for  unexpected  danger.  At  Water- 
loo it  was  not  he  that  failed  in  his  strategy,  but  Marshal 
Ney  that  failed  in  the  execution.  In  this  respect.  General 
Lee  was  exactly  his  opposite.  If  he  suffered  a  disaster, 
he  never  sought  to  evade  responsibility  by  placing  it  upon 
others.  Even  in  the  greatest  reverse  of  his  life,  the  defeat 
at  Gettysburg,  when  he  saw  the  famous  charge  of  Pickett 
melt  away  under  the  terrible  fire  that  swept  the  field,  tiU 


310  CARES  LITTLE  FOR  FAME. 

the  ranks  were  literally  torn  in  pieces  by  shot  and  shell, 
he  did  not  vent  his  despair  in  rage  and  reproaches,  but 
rushing  to  the  front,  took  the  blame  upon  himself,  saying, 
"It  is  all  my  fault"  Perhaps  no  incident  of  his  life  showed 
more  the  nobility  of  his  nature. 

When  the  war  was  over,  General  Lee  had  left  to  him  at 
Lexington  about  the  same  number  of  years  that  Napoleon 
had  at  St.  Helena ;  and  if  he  had  had  the  same  desire  to 
pose  for  posterity  in  the  part  of  the  illustrious  exile,  his 
mountain  home  would  have  furnished  as  picturesque  a 
background  as  the  rocky  Island  in  the  South  Atlantic,  from 
which  he  could  have  dictated  "  Conversations  "  that  should 
furnish  the  materials  of  history.  He  need  not  have  written 
or  published  a  single  line,  if  he  had  only  been  willing  to 
let  others  do  it  for  him.  By  their  pens  he  had  oppor- 
tunity to  tell  of  the  great  part  he  had  acted  in  the  war,  in 
a  way  to  make  the  whole  chain  of  events  contribute  to  his 
fame.  But  he  seemed  to  care  little  for  fame,  and  indeed 
was  unmoved  when  others  claimed  the  credit  of  his  victo- 
ries. If  it  be,  as  Pascal  says,  "  the  truest  mark  of  a  great 
mind  to  be  born  without  envy,"  few  men  in  history  have 
shown  more  of  this  greatness  than  he.  And  when,  as  was 
sometimes  the  case,  old  companions-in-arms  reflected  upon 
him  to  excuse  their  own  mistakes,  he  had  only  to  lift  the 
veil  from  the  secrets  of  history  to  confound  them.  But 
under  aU  such  temptations,  he  was  dumb.  Nothing  that 
he  did  or  said  was  more  truly  grand  than  the  silence  with 
which  he  bore  the  misrepresentations  of  friend  and  foe. 
This  required  a  self-command  such  as  Washington  had  not 
to  exercise  at  the  end  of  his  mihtary  career  :  for  he  retired 
from  the  scene  crowned  with  victory,  with  a  whole  nation 
at  his  feet  ready  to  do  him  honor ;  while  Lee  had  to  bear 
the  reproach  of  the  final  disaster — a  reproach  in  which 
friends  sometimes    joined   with  foes.      Yet  to   both  he 


HOW  HE  SEEMED  TO  HIS  NEIGHBORS.  311 

answered  only  with  the  same  majestic  calm,  the  outward 
sign  of  his  imvard  self-control.  Such  magnanimity  belongs 
to  the  very  highest  order  of  moral  qualities,  and  shows  a 
character  rare  in  any  country  or  in  any  age. 

This  impression  of  the  man  does  not  grow  less  with 
closer  observation.  With  the  larger  number  of  "historical 
characters,"  the  greatness  is  magnified  by  distance  and 
separation.  As  we  come  nearer  they  dwindle  in  stature, 
till,  when  we  are  in  their  very  presence,  and  look  them 
squarely  in  the  face,  they  are  found  to  be  but  men  Hke 
ourselves,  and  sometimes  very  ordinary  men — with  some 
special  ability  perhaps,  which  gives  them  success  in  the 
world,  but  who  for  all  that  are  full  of  the  selfishness  which 
is  the  very  essence  of  meanness,  and  puffed  up  with  a 
paltry  conceit  and  vanity  that  stamps  them  as  little  rather 
than  great. 

Far  different  was  the  impression  made  by  General  Lee 
upon  those  who  saw  him  in  the  freedom  of  private  inter- 
course. It  might  be  expected  that  the  soldiers  who  fought 
under  him,  should  speak  with  admiration  and  pride  of 
their  old  Commander;  but  how  did  he  appear  to  his 
neighbors?  Here  in  Lexington  everybody  knew  him,  at 
least  by  sight ;  they  saw  his  manner  of  life  from  day  to 
day,  in  his  going  out  and  his  coming  in  ;  and  to  all  the 
impression  was  the  same  :  the  nearer  he  came  to  them  the 
greater  he  seemed.  Every  one  has  some  anecdote  to  tell 
of  him,  and  it  is  always  of  something  that  was  noble  and 
lovable.  Those  who  knew  him  best,  loved  him  most  and 
revered  him  most.  This  was  not  a  greatness  that  was  put 
on,  like  a  military  cloak  :  it  was  in  the  man,  and  could  not 
be  put  on  or  put  off ;  it  was  the  greatness  which  comes 
from  the  very  absence  of  pretension. 

And  those  who  cs^me  the  closest  to  him,  give  us  a  still 
further  insight  into  his   nature,  by  telling  us  that  what 


312  FEELING  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN"  PEOPLE. 

struck  them  most,  was  the  extent  of  his  sympathy.  Sol- 
diers are  commonly  supposed  to  be  cold  and  hard — a 
temper  of  mind  to  which  they  are  inured  by  their  very 
profession.  Those  whose  business  is  the  shedding  of 
blood,  are  thought  to  delight  in  human  suffering.  It  is 
hard  to  believe  that  a  soldier  can  have  a  very  tender  heart. 
Yet  few  men  were  more  sensitive  to  others'  pain  than  Gen- 
eral Lee.  AU  who  came  near  him  perceived  that  with  his 
manly  strength,  there  was  united  an  almost  womanly 
sweetness.  It  was  this  gentleness  which  made  him  great, 
and  which  has  enshrined  him  forever  in  the  hearts  of  his 
people. 

This  sympathy  for  the  suffering  showed  itself,  not  in 
any  public  act  so  much  as  a  more  private  and  delicate 
office  which  imposed  upon  him  a  very  heavy  burden — one 
that  he  might  have  declined,  but  the  taking  of  which 
showed  the  man.  He  had  an  unHmited  correspondence. 
Letters  poured  in  upon  him  by  the  hundred  and  the 
thousand.  They  came  from  all  parts  of  the  South,  not 
only  from  his  old  companions-in-arms,  but  from  those  he 
had  never  seen  or  heard  of.  Every  mother  that  had  lost 
a  son  in  the  war,  felt  that  she  had  the  right  to  pour  her 
sorrow  into  the  ear  of  one  who  was  not  insensible  to  her 
grief.  Families  left  in  utter  poverty  appealed  to  him  for 
aid.  Most  men  would  have  shrunk  from  a  labor  so  great 
as  that  of  answering  these  letters.  Not  so  General  Lee. 
He  read  them,  not  only  patiently,  as  a  man  performs  a 
disagreeable  duty,  but  with  a  tender  interest,  and  so  far  as 
was  possible,  returned  the  kindest  answers.  If  he  had 
little  money  to  give,  he  could  at  least  give  sympathy,  and 
to  his  old  soldiers  and  their  wives  and  children  it  was 
more  than  money  to  know  that  they  had  a  place  in  that 
great  heart. 

While  thus  ministering  to  his  stricken  people,  there  is 


HIS  SERVICE  TO  THE  WHOLE  COUNTRY.  313 

one  public  benefit  which  he  rendered  that  ought  never  to 
be  forgotten.  Though  the  war  was  over,  he  still  stood  in 
public  relations  in  w^hich  he  could  render  an  immeasura- 
ble service  to  the  whole  country.  There  are  no  crises  in  a 
nation's  life  more  perilous  than  those  foUowing  civil  war. 
The  peace  that  comes  after  it  is  peace  only  in  name,  if  the 
X3assions  of  the  war  still  live.  *  After  our  great  struggle, 
the  South  was  full  of  inflammable  materials.  The  fires 
were  but  smouldering  in  ashes,  and  might  break  out  at 
any  moment,  and  rage  with  destructive  fury.  If  the  spirit 
of  some  had  had  fuU  swing,  the  passions  of  the  war  would 
have  been  not  only  perpetuated,  but  increased,  and  have 
gone  down  as  an  inheritance  of  bitterness  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  This  stormy  sea  of  passion  but  one 
man  could  control.  He  had  no  official  position,  civil  or 
military.  But  he  was  the  representative  of  the  Lost 
Cause.  He  had  led  the  Southern  armies  to  battle,  and  he 
still  had  the  unbounded  confidence  of  millions  ;  and  it  was 
his  attitude  and  his  words  of  conciliation  that  did  more 
than  anything  else  to  stiU  the  angry  tempest  that  the 
war  had  left  behind.  A  soldier  in  every  drop  of  his  blood, 
he  accepted  the  result,  not  with  muttered  imprecations  on 
his  lips,  but  frankly  and  honestly,  like  the  brave  man  that 
he  was ;  and  from  the  hour  of  surrender,  acknowledged 
it  to  be  his  place  to  be  henceforth  a  true  and  loyal  citizen 
of  the  Bepublic.  As  the  war  had  been  ended  in  the  field, 
he  held  that  it  should  be  ended  everywhere.  And  nothing 
roused  his  spirit,  usually  so  calm  and  self-controUed,  to 
anger  so  much  as  to  hear  the  hisses  and  curses  that  found 
vent  in  the  more  violent  papers  of  the  South.  On  one 
occasion,  after  reading  such  ill-timed  words,  he  said,  "I 
condemn  such  bitterness  whoUy.  Is  it  any  wonder  the 
Northern  journals  should  retort  upon  us  as  they  do,  when 
we  allow  ourselves  to  use  such  language?"    Even  if  it 


314  BURYING  ENMITIES  IN  THE  GRAVE. 

had  not  been  from  a  sense  of  the  injustice  of  this  violence 
of  speech,  and  the  impolicy  of  reviving  passion  and  hatred, 
he  had  too  much  respect  for  himself  and  for  his  own  peo- 
ple to  indulge  in  such  recriminations.  The  whole  South 
felt  the  force  of  his  example.  Even  the  old  soldiers  of 
the  Confederacy  could  accept  what  had  been  accepted  by 
their  Leader ;  the  sight  of  their  great  Chieftain,  so  calm  in 
defeat,  soothed  their  anger  and  their  pride  ;  and  as  he  had 
set  the  example,  they  deemed  it  no  unworthy  sacrifice  for 
them  to  become  loyal  supporters  of  the  restored  American 
Union.  It  is  therefore  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  is  owing 
in  great  measure  to  General  Lee  that  the  Civil  War  has 
not  left  a  lasting  division  between  the  North  and  the  South, 
and  that  they  form  to-day  One  United  Country. 

These  are  grateful  memories  to  be  recalled  now  that 
he  who  was  so  mighty  in  war,  and  so  gentle  in  peace,  has 
passed  beyond  the  reach  of  praise  or  blame.  Do  you  tell 
me  he  was  "  an  enemy,"  and  that  by  as  much  as  we  love 
our  country,  we  ought  to  hate  its  "  enemies  "  ?  But  there 
are  no  enemies  among  the  dead.  "When  the  grave  closes 
over  those  with  whom  we  have  been  at  strife,  we  can  drop 
our  hatreds,  and  judge  of  them  without  passion,  and  even 
kindly,  as  we  wish  those  who  come  after  us  to  judge  of  us. 
In  a  few  years  all  the  contemporaries  of  General  Lee  will 
be  dead  and  gone  ;  the  great  soldiers  that  fought  with 
him  and  that  fought  against  him,  will  alike  have  passed  to 
the  grave ;  and  then  perhaps  there  wiU  be  a  nearer  ap- 
proach of  feeling  between  friend  and  foe. 

"Ah,  yes,"  say  some  who  admit  his  greatness  as  a  sol- 
dier and  leader,  "if  it  were  not  for  his  ambition,  that 
stopped  not  at  the  ruin  of   his  country!"     Such  is  the 

fatal  accusation  : 

•'  CsBsar  was  ambitious  : 

If  it  were  so,  it  was  a  grievous  fault, 

And  grievously  hath  Cassar  answered  it." 


HE  PASSES  INTO  HISTORY.  315 

But  was  tliat  ambition  in  him  which  was  patriotism  in  us  ? 
How  is  it  that  we  who  were  upborne  for  four  years  by  a 
passion  for  our  country,  that  stopped  at  no  sacrifices,  con- 
not  understand  that  other  men,  of  the  same  race  and 
blood,  could  be  inspired  by  the  same  passion  for  what 
they  looked  upon  as  their  country,  and  fight  for  it  with 
the  same  heroic  devotion  that  we  fought  for  ours  ?  They 
as  well  as  we  were  fighting  for  an  idea  :  we  for  union,  and 
they  for  independence — a  cause  which  was  as  sacred  to 
them  as  ours  to  us.  Is  it  that  what  was  patriotism  on  the 
one  side,  was  only  ambition  on  the  other  ?  No  :  it  was 
not  disappointed  ambition  that  cut  short  that  life  ;  it  was 
not  the  humiliation  of  pride  ;  but  a  wound  that  struck 
far  deeper.  One  who  watched  by  him  in  those  long  night 
hours,  tells  me  that  he  died  of  a  broken  heart !  This  is 
the  most  touching  aspect  of  the  great  warrior's  death  : 
that  he  did  not  fall  on  the  field  of  battle,  either  in  the 
hour  of  defeat  or  of  victory ;  but  in  silent  grief  for  suf- 
ferings which  he  could  not  relieve.  There  is  something 
infinitely  pathetic  in  the  way  that  he  entered  into  the  con- 
dition of  a  whole  people,  and  gave  his  last  strength  to 
comfort  those  who  were  fallen  and  cast  down.  It  was  this 
constant  strain  of  hand  and  brain  and  heart  that  finally 
snapped  the  strings  of  life ;  so  that  the  last  view  of  him 
as  he  passes  out  of  our  sight,  is  one  of  unspeakable  sad- 
ness. The  dignity  is  preserved,  but  it  is  the  dignity  of 
woe.  It  is  the  same  tall  and  stately  form,  yet  not  wearing 
the  robes  of  a  conqueror,  but  bowed  with  sorrows  not  his 
own.  In  this  mournful  majesty,  silent  with  a  grief  beyond 
words,  this  great  figure  passes  into  history. 

There  we  leave  him  to  the  judgment  of  another  gene- 
ration, that  "standing  afar  off"  may  see  some  things  more 
clearly  than  we.  When  the  historian  of  future  ages  comes 
to  write  the  History  of  the  Great  Kepublic,  he  will  give 


316  ONLY  A  NAME  ! 

tlie  first  place  to  that  War  of  the  Revolution  by  which  our 
country  gained  its  independence,  and  took  its  place  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  and  the  second  to  the  late  Civil 
War,  which,  begun  for  separation,  ended  in  a  closer  and 
consolidated  Union.  That  was  the  last  act  in  the  great 
drama  of  our  nation's  hfe,  in  which  history  cannot  forget 
the  part  that  was  borne  by  him  whose  silent  form  lies 
within  this  sepulchre. 

Only  a  name!  As  I  took  a  last  look  at  the  recumbent 
statue,  I  observed  that  its  marble  base  bore  no  epitaph  ; 
no  words  of  praise  were  carved  upon  the  stone  :  only 
above  it  on  the  wall  was  the  name, 

ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE, 

with  the  two  dates, 

BoBN  January  19,  1807; 
Died  Octobeb  12,  1870. 

That  is  all :  but  it  is  enough  ;  any  eulogy  would  but 
detract  from  the  spell  of  that  single  name : 

"  One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die." 


